Inevitable
by AvaJune
Summary: Certain things in this life are inevitable. In the human world, one can't escape death and taxes. In the vampire world, however, the only two things that are absolutely inevitable are bloodlust and mating. On an ill-conceived rescue mission in Volterra, Bella Swan comes face to face with her fate and the consequences of that destiny. (Bella OOC) *Hiatus, Edits as of 7/22/19*
1. Inevitable

Jacob was gonna murder her, but only if Charlie didn't get to her first. Here she was, running through the streets of Volterra to save her ex-boyfriend from suicide by fire and dismemberment, and if asked why the only reason she could come up with was 'it seemed like the right thing to do.'

As Bella caught sight of the previous light of her life (and current bane of her existence,) cold water from the fountain she was running full tilt through spilled over into her sneakers and she was struck by how sickly Edward looked. It appeared that after he was denied his death at the hands of the Volturi, he really let himself go. For someone who had left _her_ , he was doing a remarkable impression of a man who had been rejected and abandoned.

Just as he took a step fully into the light, Bella slammed into the stone of his chest, wrapping her arms around his steel neck and trying futilely to push him backwards.

"You have to move!" She pleaded with him as he sighed heavily and embraced her. The irony of him choosing _now_ to hold her, now when it was not the time and it was too late and not when she had begged him to do so was not lost on her, but she dismissed the thought as she continued desperately to attempt to push him to safety. "Open your eyes, look at me! I'm alive! You have to move!"

Finally, as if coming out of a trance, he pulled her backwards into the corridor he had just exited with a gasp, never once releasing her body.

Bella released a sigh of relief as she brought her arms down in front of her and attempted to take a step back and get some distance. Edward seemed unwilling to release his hold, but he loosened it at her insistence, allowing her to put a few precious inches between them. She took deep gulping breaths as she tried to calm her heart rate from the sprint she just engaged in.

"Bella," he whispered reverently, "it's you."

"Yes," she said, rubbing her temples to attempt to stave off the stabbing pain threatening to split her head apart. With more force and a severe look that she had only recently mastered, she pointedly took another step backwards. This time, he did release her, though it looked as if it physically pained him.

Bracing herself, she looked up into his perfect features and felt... very little. It wasn't love anymore, just a little echo of the loss of her innocence. He was still and would always be painfully beautiful; he would always be her first love. But he would also always be the boy who used her biggest insecurities to try to break her and leave her desolate in the forest.

"I just needed you to understand I'm alive," she told his chest forcefully, refusing to meet his eye. "You don't have to feel guilty or hurt yourself, or whatever this is. I'm alive, and you see that, okay?"

He looked down at her with that familiar mix of unconditional love and condescending superiority and she felt herself bristle before she could remind herself that he didn't get to make her feel anything anymore.

"Bella, I lied," he breathed as if it explained everything. "I love you. You just believed it so easily."

She blinked up at him, her anger draining away as incredulity flooded her. What, she was supposed to have _assumed_ the man she loved would hone in on every weakness, every insecurity she had and falsely exploit them? It was reasonable to think she would know he was capable of emotionally devastating her with falsehood, that he would "hurt her to help her?"

That wasn't _fair._ She had trusted him, she had LOVED him, and he had destroyed her. Fighting back absolute rage at his implication, Bella crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes, Edward, I believed you," she told him through clenched teeth. "You were my boyfriend, my _first boyfriend_ ; I trusted you. I took you at your word, and it decimated me."

She took a deep breath and forced herself to continue. "For a little while. But that does not mean that I want you to _die_. That seems like a bit of an over-"

The arrival of two vampires she had never seen before cut off her words as Edward shushed her and forced her unceremoniously behind his back. After the depression ebbed, anger had been her constant companion when she considered her ex-boyfriend and his continued treatment of her as if she was three was making the urge to smack him in the back of the head a very difficult force to ignore. She did, though. It would, after all, only serve to make her hand sore.

"Gentleman, I won't be needing your services after all," Edward told them, cold dismissal permeating his voice as his hand held Bella steady by the hip.

The MASSIVE vampire in front paid him no mind. "Aro wants to speak with you," he said gruffly, taking a step forward with his hand slightly extended. Standing head and shoulders taller than her, his sharp jaw clenched a bit and his eyebrow raised when Edward failed to move forward.

"No rules were broken," Edward retorted in a voice bordering on desperation, forcing her backward as he pressed closer to the crowds and the light behind them.

"Never-the-less," the second vampire said with a sigh, "We should take this conversation somewhere more private."

He stared at Edward pointedly with a look that said in no uncertain terms that they expected his compliance. He pushed a few strands of shoulder-length hair out of his face as red eyes flashed to hers, almost passing over her until they stalled and the vampire's face flashed with surprise. His gaze shifted from passing to intense as a small smirk graced the man's face, before moving back to glitter dangerously at Edward when he began to growl quietly.

Bella swallowed, fighting fear and an overwhelming urge to petulantly kick the yellow-eyed creature in front of her. These men worked for Aro, they obviously did, and the danger they were in at this moment was not going to be soothed by his acting out. He had begged their help, and when they denied him, threatened unfathomable disobedience. To think he'd escape that without consequences was unforgivably naive and if Bella knew that as a human, he should certainly know it as a vampire.

"Of course," Edward replied softly, with another push to her behind him. "Bella, why don't you-"

"Edward, enough," she whispered to him quietly. "Aro, _the king_ , wants to see us. I came here to keep you alive and, for better or worse, I intend to."

He shot her a warning look. "Love-"

A sliver of fury raced down her spine as she pressed her lips together in a hard line. She stepped sideways to move around him but his hands clasped onto her waist, restraining her. When she spoke, her voice was furious and colder than his skin.

"Remove your hands from my person or I swear I will find someone to remove them for you."

Edward's eyes widened but his arms dropped to his side, the expression on his face warring between shock and hurt.

"I am confident," she hissed, "that the ruler of your entire race has better things to do than be kept waiting. I suspect he would perceive that as disrespect and personally, as a human who he could crush with a whim and a flick of his pinkie, I'd rather not anger him."

Alice fluttered in behind her, but Bella was really not in the mood for a lecture from the pixie at the moment, so she ignored the woman who used to be her best friend in the world. Instead, she stepped towards the red-eyed vampires who could easily make her lunch and very well might still do so.

"I'm ready when you are," she told them with a forced smile, glancing between the two.

A tense moment passed, then another, before the big one snorted and eyed his companion.

"She's got much bigger balls than the fur muncher, D," he said with mirth sparkling in his crimson irises, his teeth sparkling dangerously in what may have been a disarming smile had they not been quite so sharp looking.

'D' had her fixed in his unwavering gaze, a smirk still playing across his face.

"She most certainly does," he agreed simply, extending his hand to her with a raised eyebrow. It felt like he was daring her to take it and never one to make good life choices, Bella placed her warm hand in his gloved one. She watched with a bit of awe, the kind a human could not help but to feel in a vampire's presence, as his smirk turned to the smallest of grins.

Edward hissed something behind her but before she could turn to beg him to be silent, a small teenage angel-faced girl walked into the corridor, her face set in a mask of irritation.

"Enough!" She hissed. "Demetri! Felix! The Masters are waiting!"

Bella was drug along behind who she now knew was Demetri, and had she not been equal parts angry and petrified, she may have had more to say about the stunning architecture. Volterra was beautiful, and in another life, she would have loved to visit and explore the rich history here. In another life, she would be visiting Italy and sightseeing, reading from a tourist guide book and taking crumby pictures with the camera she had been given. But that was not this life, she reminded herself as she felt the gloved hand unpausingly moving her forward. That was not _her_ life.

Felix was eyeing her speculatively as Bella attempted to keep from stumbling, leaving her feeling nervous and afraid under his gaze. After tripping a fourth time, the vampire snorted and took a deep breath, scenting the air as if sniffing a delicious pie. Of course, to him, she reasoned with no small amount of dread, that's probably exactly what she was.

"Oh, dibs," Felix said with a sinister smile that showed all his teeth. Bella stiffened, adrenaline and terror running freely through her veins before Demetri paused and turned slightly to face the bigger vampire. One eyebrow raised in apparent question as he stared, eyes pitch black and hard. Felix swallowed as his eyes fell to the floor and seemed to take an involuntary step back.

"Or not," he mumbled quietly, raising his hands in a surrendering motion. Demetri remained immobile, the air thick with some terrifying sense of threat she didn't understand for a few more moments before he turned without a word and beginning to lead her again. If anything, her ever-rising fear increased her stumbling.

Jane, as she learned the girl was called, pushed open two heavy wooden doors to reveal three men seated upon a dais in what could only be described as thrones. Demetri released her hand with an oddly gentle squeeze and moved to stand beside Felix at the back of the room, leaving her beside Edward and feeling oddly exposed without the red-eyed vampire. The room was empty aside from the Kings, who she recognized from Carlisle's painting, and one additional vampire who motioned for Jane to join him.

"Ahhhh," exclaimed the man she recognized as Aro as he rose and moved towards them. His skin was paper-thin and his eyes were somehow more burgundy than the others, an aura of age and power rolling off his every step as he moved closer. It was not hard, she realized, to understand why he among all the others was a King.

"What happy news!" he continued, striding towards them with the air of a man who owned his space, owned the very air that caressed your skin and therefore had a right to all of it. "Bella yet lives. This is a surprise."

Without asking, he took Edward's hand, his eyes unfocusing slightly before he released it and surreptitiously rubbed his fingers together. His head snapped to the side, fixing Bella in his penetrating gaze. She fought not to buckle under it.

Alice had lectured her in the car on the Volturi, telling her among other things that Aro's gift was soul reading. He could, she had said, read everything with a single touch. She immediately averted her eyes from the King in front of her, some survival instinct driving her to appear as small and submissive as possible. She was not an idiot and these were not the Cullens. These were _real_ vampires, 'Cold Ones,' and not only capable of serious damage to her person, but much more willing to inflict it than the golden-eyed figures she had once called family.

Before she could blink, Aro stood in front of her and extended his hand, a benevolent smile gracing his face that somehow increased her unease rather than soothed it.

"May I?" He asked in a tone that sounded very little like a question. A growl erupted from Edward's throat, a hiss from Alice's, and Bella found her eyes straying back to the vampire of whom she knew nothing exempting his name. Demetri's eyes met hers and he nodded, granting a sort of calmness to her she had not known she was asking for.

"Of course," she murmured, turning her attention back to Aro. She couldn't help watching his face as he bent over her hand, noting with distant fascination as his eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up to his forehead. Aro released her hand with a soft sound, somewhere between elation and discomfort.

"I see nothing," he said, turning back to the thrones as Bella frantically tried to decide whether or not this boded well for her. He seemed to be thinking before he turned back towards her, fixing her with a curious sort of expression. "I wonder if she is immune to all our gifts..."

He was turning towards Jane when Demetri spoke unexpectedly from the back of the room.

"Master, that won't be necessary," he said firmly, in a tone that bordered on menace. "She is untrackable. I can attest to it."

Aro studied him with a look of surprise and slight anger. "Demetri-"

"Brother."

Marcus' gravelly voice rang through the room and Bella fought hysterical, highly inappropriate laughter as every vampire in the room started. She hadn't even known vampires could startle. Marcus extended his hand for Aro to touch and as he did, several things happened simultaneously.

Demetri took a step forward to stand at Bella's side, between her and Edward.

Aro turned back to look at Demetri with excitement in his eyes.

And Edward snarled and shook his head, attempting to reach around the larger vampire and pull Bella behind him.

Demetri was faster, however, and quickly enough that it made her a little dizzy she was across the room, looking into the wide expanse of Demetri's back as Edward lunged and was quickly restrained by Felix.

"No, you are monsters!" Edward was snarling, arms pulled behind him as he fought the confines of Felix's hands. "You cannot do this!"

Aro fixed him with a glare that had a shiver running down Bella's spine, even across the room. "You will find, young man, that I can do a great many things," he said softly, authority making his quiet words ring through the room as if he were shouting. "Especially when one such as you has violated so very many laws, that it is impossible to pick just one to punish."

Aro glanced towards her before turning his stare back towards Edward. "As it is, you must know you have damned her, as you see it, or condemned her to certain death."

Bella closed her eyes and fought down the whimper at the realization that she had been aware, deep down, was coming. She had known, of course she had known, that she was never going to leave Volterra with a heartbeat. It was guaranteed from the start.

So why had she come here? Oh yes, because 'it seemed like the right thing to do.' She had come to rescue the man who had told her she was nothing, worth _nothing_ , and left her to die in the woods. She didn't fancy herself stupid, she didn't, but this choice might prove otherwise.

Demetri's back was rumbling with a growl as he pulled her closer to him by her hip.

Stupid, she was so _stupid!_ Why did she come, why was she here, why-

"I left so she could have a normal life! I left to keep her safe!"

Edward was shaking with righteous indignation, pulling frantically at Felix's hold as he stared around him with wild eyes. "I'll not let you do this to her! Don't hurt her! Don't-"

She was going to die, she was going to _DIE,_ and it was all. His. Fault.

Bella lost it.

"How dare you!" she screamed, rage and pain ripping through her throat as she forgot herself and pushed against the steel back in from her. "You did this to me! YOU! None of the vampires in this room brought a vulnerable human into this world of supernatural predators, _but_ _you did_. You told me the secret, you revealed the vampire race, you left me with knowledge that is _illegal_ for me to have! But it wasn't enough, that wasn't enough, because you abandoned me! Victoria is still out there and you left me to the pissed off mate of a vampire you and your family killed. Who, as you know, now is obsessed with the idea of 'a mate for a mate,' blissfully unaware that you left me in the woods and vanished from my life! And today, Edward, TODAY you were going to condemn every single human being in Volterra who saw you sparkle in the sun to certain death!"

She tried to rush around the obstacle in front of her, to bite or kick or claw the slack-faced, speechless vampire in front of her but an iron arm held her back and she contented herself with more verbal vitriol.

"Do you ever, for even a _moment_ , consider the consequences of your actions?! THEY are going to kill a human to protect the entirety of their species. They kill humans to eat. YOU were going to kill humans for a very public temper tantrum, and you condemned me to death for a love that wasn't even important enough for you to stick around for! I didn't pick this, I am innocent, but if you want to blame someone for the fact that I am going to die here in Italy, you need look no further than-."

Aro startled her from her self-righteous monologue by clapping his hands together and squealing as if she had simply done the most delightful trick. Demetri's growl rose in volume until she could feel her whole body vibrating right along with his and she blushed to realize that she had quite literally been trying to climb around him in her quickly cooling rage to attempt to inflict damage on her ex-boyfriend.

Aro looked to the guard and smiled indulgently. "Demetri, now, there is no need," he assured the man softly. "The sentence is death, my friend. However, whether her heart ceases to beat today, or in three days, I leave entirely up to you."


	2. The Change

The growl cut off at Aro's assurance and Demetri nodded imperceptibly, turning to sweep Bella into his arms and run at vampire speed from the room. She barely had time to register the enraged roar that followed their departure before she was forced to close her eyes and concentrate solely on not upchucking all over the vampire who had her clutched to his chest. Wind rushed past her as she held on tightly, scared despite herself at the speed.

When finally Demetri resumed a normal (to her) pace, Bella found herself in what appeared to be someone's private quarters, presumably the vampire who had just ran away with her. He deposited her on a leather sofa without ceremony and moved through the room towards a wet bar.

Trying to calm her pounding heart and racing breath, Bella took a moment while his back was turned to attempt to get her bearings. Escape was, at best, unlikely and more probably impossible, but the scared, human side of her couldn't help but wonder if maybe there was a way...

Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that a part of her felt comfortable here, comfortable in this strange man's presence, and did not want to escape.

She had been brought to a sitting room of sorts. There were two armchairs matching the sofa she had been set on, along with mahogany end tables flanking each side. The end tables each sported glossy black lamps. The walls were painted an off white with stormy gray trim and most decorations were confined to one wall, consisting almost entirely of weapons wracks containing various daggers and short swords. The exemption was a tapestry which ran the entire length of a different wall, depicting an Egyptian scene embroidered in golden threads, much like one would think to see on the walls of a pyramid. The remaining walls were flanked with bookshelves entirely, with only the area in from of the large balcony window left bare.

Double dark-colored doors were swung open to reveal a glimpse of a four-poster bed in the bedroom beyond, black silk sheets sprawled invitingly on the surface and rippling softly as a breeze caressed them through an open window.

Demetri's voice snapped Bella back to current reality with a start, bringing her focus sharply back to the unknown vampire in the room.

"Would you like a drink, kouklitsa?" He asked, turning slightly while sipping at his own glass.

Bella swallowed thickly.

"No, thank you," she murmured, studying the man before her. Demetri shrugged and moved to the armchair directly across from her. He set down his drink before moving quickly through the room, shrugging off his Volturi cloak and removing his suit jacket.

"So," he mused, placing his jacket over the back of the unoccupied chair. "Do you know what is going to happen now?"

Sliding down into his chosen seat, he retrieved the glass and took a long sip as he waited for her answer.

Bella studied him briefly as she considered what to say. Like all vampires, he was stunningly beautiful, but unlike the Cullens with their extremely pale complexion, Demetri's skin was an olive tone and his hair was a deep ebony. It hung loosely to his shoulders, straight but not lank. Based on her time spent behind him, she would guess he stood over 6' but less than 6' 5". He was lean but not overly thin and he held himself with a sort of formal competence that was both intriguing and screamed to her of danger that she would be wise to steer clear of. Being with the Cullen's had felt as if Bella was playing in a game in which she could understand none of the rules. Being around Demetri felt as if she couldn't even reach the table the game was sat upon.

"You are going to carry out Aro's ruling," she confirmed cautiously.

"Yes," Demetri agreed.

"You will drain me or change me."

"Yes."

"Any idea which you might be leaning towards?" She asked softly, nerves causing her heart to skitter in her chest like a nervous animal.

Demetri tilted his head to the side before taking another deep drink from his glass. With a sigh and a clench of teeth, he set the glass down and leaned forward, placing his forearms on his thighs and studying her closely.

"How much do you know of vampire mating, kouklitsa?"

Bella's eyes flashed with wariness at that topic, but she answered cautiously.

"Not much that I can trust at this point," she admitted, picking at invisible lint on her shirt. "I certainly can't be sure how much of it was even relevant information."

She grimaced and bit at her lip. "I was told I was Edward's mate," she explained as she slumped slightly into her chair, rounding her shoulders as she curled into herself. "That, however, does not match up with the concept that mates cannot seem to be without one another for any sort of long period of time. He left me for months and seemed to survive the separation just fine. I know that Emmett and Rosalie are mated differently than Jasper and Alice, although I don't know what that difference is. And I'm not sure how the concept of mates relates to soulmates or twin souls or any other spiritual connection. Honestly, every conversation I've had has been pretty contradictory."

She paused and met Demetri's eyes carefully. "Why do you ask?"

He made a small sound of assent and nodded. "Allow me to explain what is correct and what is incorrect in your understanding and then I will tell you why. Yes?"

Bella nodded, although she suspected any denial would have been ignored anyway. Demetri settled back in his seat and rubbed his chin absently with his thumb.

"First of all," he began, "it is true that Cullen would not have been able to leave your side for that long were you two, in fact, mated as vampires. However, with you being human, the mating pull would have been muted enough that perhaps it would have been possible. It would have been agony, but theoretically possible."

Bella felt her heart stutter. Dear lord, she could not handle it if Alice was right and they were in fact mates. That sounded like a really, really horrible eternity and she was still kind of holding out hope she was going to be turned and not killed.

"However, you are right in your assertion. You and Edward Cullen are not mates." Bella let out a breath of relief that she couldn't quite contain and Demetri smiled faintly at her. "I know this for three reasons. The third, I will share with you later. For now though, you should know that a vampire cannot ever be mated to their singer. If they were, most would likely murder their mate before they had any hope of turning them and that would be unbearably cruel. Second, Marcus can see mating bonds; it is his gift. There is no such bond between you and Cullen."

Demetri took another sip and studied her face. "As to the understanding that of the mated couples within the Cullen Coven there exist multiple kinds, you are correct in that assertion as well," he continued. "There is a difference in the kinds of relationships vampires engage in. One might say there are, in fact, three levels. Remember, despite what the Cullen's may have pretended to you, vampires and humans are vastly different. Their interpersonal relationships are no exception."

Setting down his glass, he proceeded to raise a finger. "Firstly, you have companions. This, I suppose, would be similar to having a boyfriend in human terms. These are simply two, or perhaps more, people who are passing their time together. They may fuck, they may live together, but they are temporary."

"Next, you have mates," he continued. "Mates are fairly common for a vampire to find at some point, but only because we live for so incredibly long. A mate is a perfect complement to their partner, but each vampire has more than one mate out there for them. To correct this biological oversight and keep individuals from being drawn to many different people, a vampire will be drawn to mate with the first possible person they meet who fulfills whatever biological criteria is imbedded in their nature that identifies such. After the mating bond is completed, they will no longer recognize or be recognized by other prospective mating partners. They will be 'locked in,' for lack of a better way to describe it. Emmett and Rosalie Cullen are mates."

"But there is another kind of mate, right?" Bella prodded.

Demetri nodded and rubbed his jaw with his thumb in what appeared to be a nervous tic. "Yes, Belloula. You are correct once more. There are also true mates."

He paused, looking away and draining the remainder of his liquor before he met her eyes once more.

"True mates are the other half of a person, the literal piece of yourself you are missing. If mates are a communion of hearts, true mates are a communion of souls. True mates are rare and are typically only found by those with gifts that enable them to search for their true mate, such as Alice knowing where to find Jasper. That pair of Cullens are true mates. It is not something that is immediately apparent to most. In fact, I am surprised you know there is a difference at all."

"Well, you seem to know and you aren't even friends with the Cullens," she said cautiously.

Demetri smirked. "No, but I am one of Marcus's only friends," he told her. "And if you spend any time with him, you will find that Marcus is rather tragically preoccupied with the idea of mates."

"And," Bella began carefully, "if I will have an opportunity to spend time with him, can I assume that means you will be changing me instead of killing me outright?"

His smirk widened. "Very good, kouklitsa," he almost purred, leaning forward in his seat and fixing her with an unwavering, crimson stare. "Now answer me this. Why have I described vampire mating to you in such detail before sinking my teeth into your pretty neck?"

Bella's heart surged in her chest. She wasn't that unobservant; she had known on the periphery of her mind why such a conversation would be necessary. She had, however, been keenly decided to ignore the implications of this talk. Apparently, Demetri was not going to allow that.

"Demetri?" Bella said cautiously.

"Yes, Belloula?" He replied, standing and slowly stalking towards her.

"Are we mates?" She asked, swallowing convulsively as he came to stand directly in front of her.

Demetri made a sound of assent and pulled her to her feet, pushing her gently towards the bedroom. Bella's eyes widened and she backed slowly away, each of her steps backwards matched with one of Demetri's own, bringing him closer.

"Are we true mates?" She whispered, already knowing the answer. It was a truly thrilling and terrifying prospect and fear coursed through her veins in conjunction with other unnameable emotions.

"Yes," he stated as her knees hit the bed. He pushed her hard enough that she sprawled backwards, her heart pumping out of her chest as he stared at her, eyes raking down her figure as she lay helplessly frozen before him.

She should be screaming, fighting, _begging._ She didn't want to turn anymore, didn't want this, except that the thought of it seemed so much more appealing than it had a few hours ago as this largely unknown vampire studied what he clearly already considered his. Almost languidly, he draped himself over her, pinning her body to the bed with his as his arms caged her in. He leaned in, quickly blackening eyes locked with brown, before he paused inches from her face.

"I'm going to kiss you now," Demetri murmured. Panic surfaced and quickly dissipated as she felt herself drawn under by some force inside her.

This was a terrible idea.

This was the best idea.

Bella nodded her assent but he simply chuckled. "I wasn't asking, kouklitsa."

His lips brushed against hers, so softly that she had to bite back a protest because that wasn't much of anything and suddenly, she wanted _more_. Then again, this time with more pressure, and Bella found herself straining forward before finally, he kissed her firmly, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth and nibbling it gently. She moaned, because it just felt so incredibly good and then she blushed, because she had never moaned into a man's mouth in her life and she wasn't entirely sure that was a normal thing to do.

Demetri didn't seem to mind though, as he gently separated her lips with his tongue and the taste of sweet, intoxicating venom exploded in her mouth, leaving her dumb to anything but the feel of his tongue against her own. When finally breath became necessary, she tore her mouth from his to suck in deep, gulping sobs of air and Demetri turned to nibble on her ear.

His tongue peeked out to lick the redness of her cheek and he smiled when she squealed. "Why so bashful, agapi mou?"

"I just-" Bella stuttered, painfully aware of how much she shouldn't want this, not when she had just met this man, and how horribly embarrassing it was that she did. "I've never done any of this before."

Demetri pulled back with a scrunched up brow and looked down at her. "Done what before?" He asked slowly.

She stared up at him, cheeks flaming, pleading with her eyes for him to understand and not make her say it out loud. Understanding dawned on his face a moment before his eyes darkened further and he let out an unnecessary breath.

"Do you mean to say you are untouched, Belloula?" He asked her with a deepened voice, eyes boring into hers intently. When she nodded, he growled softly and met her lips once more, aggressively plundering her mouth with his tongue until all rational thought had left her head and she was utterly lost to him.

When finally he let her up for air again, he met her hazy eyes and smirked.

"Bella, do you know what happens next?"

She found herself surprised by the sound when her words came out husky and from deep in her chest.

"Are we going to... you know...?"

Demetri chuckled and stroked her hair fondly. "No, Belloula," he said, burying his nose for a moment into the strands and inhaling. "I think you have had enough excitement for one day, and it is not yet over. When you awake, you will likely have different priorities, at least at first. I have waited over a thousand years to find you and claim you, kouklitsa. I will wait a little longer."

"Then what is next?" She whispered, arousal fading as fear returned at the reminder of what was to come.

"It is time for me to end your human life," he murmured quietly, as if to soften the blow. And it was a blow, because she would lose the life she had remade for herself, the people who mattered most to her.

Charlie.

Jake.

She'd lose them both.

"I will take care of everything," he continued, stroking fingers down her cheek as tears began to fall. "I will kill you here and outside this castle, and then you will wake to your eternity."

"Will you stay with me?" Bella asked quietly, ignoring the heavy sadness in her chest as she stared into deep, crimson eyes.

Demetri broke her gaze and nuzzled her neck, gently nudging her jaw until she moved her head to the side, allowing access to the entire column of her pale skin.

"I'll not leave you," he whispered, kissing her pulse point softly. "Ho un debole per te..."

His teeth cut through the thin barrier separating his tongue from her sweet blood and he began to suck. When he pushed his venom in instead, Bella began to scream.

 **AN:**

 **Greek Translations**

 **'Kouklitsa' - Doll**

 **'Belloula' - Diminutive Form of 'Bella'**

 **'Agapi Mou' - My Love**

 **Italian Translations**

 **'Ho un debole per te...' - I'm weak for you...**


	3. Scorching

Demetri watched as his little mate writhed on the bed, the fire of the change coursing through her body. Two days had passed since he had tasted the ambrosia that was her blood for the first and last time, and the moment was fast approaching when she would wake to a new world entirely. He kept his cool hands on her forehead and cheeks, offering comfort as she suffered. No male vampire reveled in watching their mate in pain, but this pain was necessary and beautiful, in its own way. He would likely not deny her this agony even if he had somehow been given the opportunity to do so. Dying was required to be reborn, after all, and the burning stripped away those things that might hold one back like flaying flesh from bone. _If_ it was harnessed correctly; most did not harness it correctly. But looking at his mate, he couldn't help but believe that she would.

He smiled to himself as he stroked her quickly darkening hair. His kouklitsa would be beautiful, of that there was no doubt. Demetri could not help but be fascinated by the small but still fiery human who had crashed into Volterra with the express goal of saving a vampire she was obviously no longer terribly fond of. She was clearly a study of dichotomies.

Respectful to those she deemed worthy, yet stunning in her defiance of those she did not. Fearful, and yet brave in the face of those much stronger than she. Demetri's finger traced her cheekbone as she whimpered, causing him to flinch momentarily and murmur nonsense words of comfort. Who was this little one the fates had deemed his?

Mating was an interesting phenomenon; one he had always been content to watch from the outside. Demetri had certainly never craved a mate, and the companionship that many vampires sought held little appeal to him. He, of course, fucked plenty, whenever the mood struck him. He had always been careful in his choice of partner, never seeking release with someone who may be seeking more than that with him. He was always respectful of his partners, always made sure that they left more than sated and satisfied, but that was the end of it. So this possessiveness, this protectiveness, this almost obsession with the brunette writhing on his bed was a new experience indeed.

Demetri's thoughts were interrupted by a rapping sound on the outer door of his quarters. His chest rumbled in an instinctive warning growl and he tensed, displeased that anyone would approach when his mate was known to be vulnerable. It was hardly a concern, most of the guard weren't really stupid enough to challenge him. However, if he was forced to remove someone's head, he'd have to take his hands from his kouklitsa's face and she was seemingly consoled by the coolness of his palms.

He sighed and ground his teeth together lightly when he studied the tenor of the mind waiting to be allowed entrance. It seemed his idiot best friend was unable to entertain himself for any period of time.

"Enter the solar," he said coldly. "Cross to where I can see you. Do not approach the bedchamber, or you will find yourself overly warm and fiery before you even have a moment to glimpse her."

The door opened and Felix appeared in the space beyond the door, grinning slightly with his arms raised in a placating motion. "Whoa now, D. I didn't know when I called dibs, alright? Just thought you'd want to know what happened after you took off with your human."

Narrowing his eyes, Demetri deliberated, glancing at Bella before he returned his gaze to the large vampire. "Fine. Do share."

Felix sighed and pushed his hands into his front pockets, leaning back against the far wall with one foot propped up behind him. "Cullen threw a temper tantrum," he said with a small grin, "screamed to the gods about how she would never be under the thumb of a monster. He demanded her return and screeched about calling Daddy."

Demetri snorted. Naturally, he would threaten to tattle to Carlisle. The boy clearly over-estimated the coven leader's influence in Volterra.

"When he realized that wasn't getting him anywhere," Felix continued, "he reneged on his suicide plans and instead demanded to serve in Volterra, presumably to keep an eye on Isabella. Aro pretty much came in his pants at the idea."

Demetri ground his teeth together as he stroked his Belloula's forehead. Of course the boy would stay to interfere with Bella as much as possible, and Aro was so seduced by the idea of Edward's power, the bastard was going to let him.

"We should probably go ahead and get rid of King Creepy before he invites all the other fur munchers to invade Italy," Felix suggested casually. "Bambina there may not appreciate them swarming the palace based on what Aro read from Edward."

Pressing his lips together, Demetri brought one hand up to rub the bridge of his nose. "For the hundredth time, Felix: I do not want to command the guard. I do not think you would make a good king, nor would I. I have no interest in politics, and I am not going to help you murder Aro simply because you find him off-putting."

"Oh, come on!" Felix complained, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "You don't like the fucker either."

Demetri shrugged. "I do not like most people. I do not dislike most people either. Why you dislike him so much is still beyond me, but the fact remains that the leader of the Volturi has responsibilities I have no interest in. Furthermore, he reads you regularly and must find you so incredibly non-threatening, that your assassination plans are beneath his notice or amuse him. That should tell you something. If you are so determined, in spite of all this, why not enlist the aid of the other kings?"

Felix took a big breath to answer and Demetri grinned. Riling the big fucker up was constant entertainment.

"Damn it, D, you know why! This is serious," Felix grumbled. "Caius just wants to burn the fucking world down and Marcus is too busy moping. You know this power-hungry, dictator bullshit is going to get our asses burned one day, right?"

The tracker simply lifted an eyebrow. "And on that day, I may kill whoever needs killing," he said casually, "whether that be invading enemies or my King. Not before, however."

Truth be told, Felix was the strongest physical presence the vampire world had ever seen. People underestimated him consistently, assumed that because he lacked a gift he was simply there, on the guard, because he was big. Even the Kings themselves underestimated him. This was often a fatal mistake. Felix was tactical, and he was a master at combat. He was faster and stronger than any other vampire Demetri had ever seen and he had devoted himself to the study of fighting. The man could see his opponent's end game shortly after their first movement. This was not a gift, not something he was turned with. No, this was the result of hard work and study, honed through venom and pain.

Demetri was not originally brought into the guard for his fighting skills, but tracking was a gift, not a skill. A thousand years was a very long time not to develop a skill, and so he had trained. Many guards came and went, but the permanent guard had the opportunity to be the best fighters in the world, if they sought it. Vampires would never lose the ability to fight, once it had been acquired, but they could certainly get better. Demetri had spent a lot of time getting better, and he was now very fucking good.

The witch twins did not train. They relied on their gifts and that had worked just fine for them, at least until the beautiful woman currently pressed up against him arrived in Volterra. Oh yes, his little mate was a complete game-changer. What would they do, not that she could render them impotent? The Kings, their mates, Chelsea, Corin: they also had not combat trained in centuries. Amusingly, the highest-ranking members of Voltura were actually the weakest when it came to hand to hand combat. The only ones who seemed not to know this were themselves. Fuck, Afton worked so hard on his combat specifically because Chelsea did not. Someone had to protect his mate, after all.

Never before had the Volturi faced a vampire who could completely nullify all their gifts until his Belloula. And she would certainly be trained, he'd make damn sure of that. Demetri would not leave her without the ability to reign hell upon anyone who sought her harm.

Letting the topic die for now, Felix's eyes flashed and a smirk spread across his face. "You know, D," he mentioned casually. "Cullen had a lot to say about your filthy hands 'dirtying up her innocence'. Seemed to think you would intend to 'desecrate' her. His words, D. Fucking desecrate."

"And?"

"I was just wondering," he asked with a grin, "what in the fuck you were thinking about in the throne room that got his panties so far in a twist? Marcus informed the rest of us she was your mate and all, but Edward seemed to think you'd be doing some pretty nasty stuff to her. I gotta wonder what you were fantasizing about, ya know?"

Demetri stared at his soon to be armless friend, waiting to see just how many more limbs he would intend to lose.

Felix simply laughed at his silence. "Oh come on, you know I'm just fucking with you. You still mad about the dibs thing? I didn't know, asshole. She just looked like a tasty-"

A loud growl cut off whatever else he was going to say as he took a few steps towards the door, eyes slightly widened.

"So anyway," Felix back peddled, unnecessarily clearing his throat. "You're busy, what with the whole mate changing thing. I'll just-"

"When she wakes," Demetri said quietly, staring at Bella. "The first thing I am going to do is feed her. The second thing I will do, however, is remind her of your claiming her as your meal as a human. I will describe this conversation to her in detail. And then we will find you for our first sparring session."

"D, come on..."

"And Felix, if you harm my mate in any way, I will help her to rip off the limb of her choosing and let her decide when to give it back. Newborn emotions being what they are, I wouldn't expect it to be soon."

Felix scowled. "Not cool, Demetri."

"Neither is talking about my mate's sexual history when she can't respond," Demetri replied calmly. "Don't worry, Cullen will be having the same sparring session, but I won't give him a chance to take his beating like a man."

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, the big vampire turned to leave. "You're god damn mean, man," he grumbled.

Demetri shrugged, still keeping his eyes on his kouklitsa.

"When it comes to my mate, you have no fucking idea."

The final 24 hours passed much as the previous 48 hours had. Demetri watched the changes roll through Bella's body and kept his hands on her, attempting to cool the fire raging through her and because he simply could not bear to keep his hands _off_ of her. Her hair had darkened ever so slightly and what had fallen in heavy strands now seemed to cascade in waves. Her pale skin was, of course, paler and her eyelashes had lengthened. Her breasts were fuller and her hips were wider. She was still petite, but what had been hints of curves were now no longer subtle.

He wondered what she would remember. It varied so drastically from person to person, it was hard to predict how much of a vampire's human life would be recalled. Of course, Demetri wasn't sure how she would view her change. He supposed some would deem it traumatic, but she hadn't seemed surprised or even overly opposed to the idea. He listened carefully as her heartbeat sped to speeds it had never before and would never again reach. His Belloula arched off the bed and he realized he would not have long to wonder.

Carefully, Demetri extricated himself from the bed and stepped to the foot to await her awakening. He did not want to crowd her and an unknown, lightly scarred male, even one she would feel a mating pull to, lying beside her in bed was bit much to ask a newborn to cope with.

Her heart stopped. Red eyes snapped open and immediately settled on him. Demetri took a deep, unnecessary breath as he viewed his mate for the first time on the other side of the change and he smiled.

* * *

The fire was slowly pulling back from her extremities, working its way towards her chest and leaving the rest of her cold and heavy. It was hard to determine if this was a positive development, but she was now reasonably sure this was not actually hell. It seemed like hell would not have a retracting fire; that did not fit with the concept of eternal fiery damnation. It seemed the fire would have to be eternal as well.

Also, she wasn't quite sure, but she was pretty confident she had been a decent person. Maybe. She didn't remember. But there was the sense that she at least would have made it to limbo if heaven was out.

On the list of things she remembered, she had exactly... nothing. Okay, a few things. At least, a few impressions.

The first was that she had been caught up in something she had no business having anything to do with and it had lead her to her current circumstance. She was left with the distinct impression of being over her head. That was not a fun impression to have when one could not remember how or why that may be the case.

The second was that during the majority of this time there had been a touch, a scent, and a voice that was deeply soothing. She kind of wanted to find that presence and bask in it. Bathe in it. Roll around in it in what she felt were likely inappropriate ways. But it was just outside whatever physiological prison she was currently locked in, so that particular yearning would have to wait.

The third sense was a name; her name. It was right there, on the tip of her consciousness. Just as she started to grasp it though, the fire intensified, burning through her stomach and breasts and she felt her spine bend in an attempt to get away from it. The comforting presence moved away and she felt like crying. Where the fuck was it going when she needed it most?!

The pain centered in her heart and she felt it beat hard trying to fight off the pain before finally-

It was over. The pain ended and she was left in darkness. In less than a second, she cataloged her surroundings.

She could hear the scuttling of an insect somewhere in the room. Her clothes were extremely irritating and she was fairly confident before (whenever before was) denim had not been anywhere near this abrasive.

And she could smell-

OOOh! There it was!

Her eyes flashed open quickly and there it- no, there HE was. There was that scent: scotch and campfire. The feeling that rolled off of him made her feel secure and stable and like the pain was inconsequential. He smiled and that was really an extremely lovely sight. Now if only he would talk to her again and she could hear that voice that had walked her through all the burning and-

"Hello, Belloula."

Ha, there it was! She knew she would remember her name.


	4. Parched

_Her eyes flashed open quickly and there it- no, there HE was. There was that scent: scotch and campfire. The feeling that rolled off of him made her feel secure and stable and like the pain was inconsequential. He smiled and that was really an extremely lovely sight. Now if only he would talk to her again and she could hear that voice that had walked her through all the burning and-_

 _"_ _Hello,_ _Belloula_ _."_

 _Ha, there it was! She knew she would remember her name._

"Hello... you," she answered with a grin.

He raised a single eyebrow and tilted his head. "Do you not remember my name?"

"I seem to remember very little about a lot of things," she answered, sitting up and finding the motion to be much faster than it should be.

"Whoa," she exclaimed, staring at the man with wide eyes. "That doesn't seem right."

He chuckled. "I suppose you probably aren't familiar with the speed, but you will adjust. We will talk after see to your needs. Are you perchance hungry, kouklitsa?"

On consideration, hungry seemed like it should be a gnawing stomach, but instead she felt a burning in her throat and somehow that seemed to be telling her that she was, in fact, hungry. She was very, very hungry.

"I think so," she said with a nod, moving to stand by him and finding herself there within a blink.

Slowly, the man reached for her and cradled her cheek, studying her face intently. She leaned into his hand and felt her chest rumble involuntarily. Holy fuck, did she just purr?

"You need blood, Bambina," the man stated, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the hallway.

Her nose scrunched up in confusion. "Blood?" she wondered aloud, allowing herself to be pulled along through. "Well, that doesn't seem right either."

The man chuckled and shook his head. "You truly remember nothing, Belloula?" he said, glancing back at her with inquiring eyes before he turned away once more. "Well, your instincts should serve you well enough, anyway. First, you eat. Then, I will explain what I can. For now though, you need only know this. I am Demetri, I am your sire, and you are a vampire."

"Oh," she said with a slow nod of understanding. "That explains a lot, actually."

Demetri pulled her along through corridors and doors, steadily moving towards an area where she could hear more sound. He cocked his head and glanced back at her once more.

"Tell me what you remember of vampires."

"Okay," she agreed thoughtfully, pushing her hair away from her face as she bit her lip. "They are unbelievably fast and strong, they survive on blood, sparkle in the sunlight. The hellfire I was in makes a lot more sense now. I know a sire means that you are the one who made me." She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about that. "Cold, hard, and mostly indestructible?"

Demetri nodded, pausing at a set of double doors through which 6 unfamiliar smells wafted, making her antsy. "It seems, kouklitsa, that you have retained much of your knowledge, simply not how it applies to you. This is not entirely abnormal," he told her with a shrug. He lifted his hands to cradle her face and force her eyes to stop roaming and meet his. Immediately, she felt herself falling into twin ruby orbs and she unconsciously leaned forward into the strange warmth this man's touch and gaze provided.

"When we go in here, there will be 6 vampires on the far side of the room," he said, tone somehow stern and warm at the same time as his thumbs stroked along her cheekbones. "You will feel threatened, kouklitsa, not because they mean you harm, but simply because your instincts are on overdrive. You will stay behind me. As your sire and... other things, this should instinctually calm you into feeling secure enough not to act out. I must emphasize, if you are going to lose your mind momentarily and attack other vampires, some of these specifically are not the vampires I would prefer you have that little momentary lapse with."

He grinned at her and she could not help but return it.

"This room is where we feed, together, as a coven. For today, it will only be those 6 and myself who are present after Heidi drops off your meal. No one else will be eating today, but still, it's good practice to be in the same room. Try... not to bite anyone who doesn't have a heartbeat, if at all possible."

With that Demetri turned, pulled her firmly behind him, and opened the doors.

* * *

Demetri was not entirely sure whether this was a good turn of events or not. His mate forgetting her human life in its entirety could be convenient for him, as it provided him with a sort of blank slate on which to build a working relationship, but at the same time it would complicate some things. Things like the current state of affairs which included Edward Cullen and Carlisle Cullen currently standing behind Aro's throne.

Aro stood at their arrival, looking very pleased with how everything was panning out for him. "Ah, Isabella! So lovely to-"

"Belloula," the vampire behind Demetri interrupted.

Aro paused and peered at what little he could see of her behind Demetri. "Pardon?"

She leaned out slightly from behind Demetri and gave the king a small smile. "My name. It's Belloula, not," she paused, her face scrunching up in distaste, "Isabella."

Aro raised his eyebrows and glanced at Demetri. Lounging against the wall, Felix coughed into his hand as if he was attempting without complete success to hold back a chuckle.

Demetri shrugged. "She remembers nothing, evidently, although her technical knowledge so far appears intact."

He turned slightly to his little mate. "Isabella is, in actuality, your name, though it is my understanding that you preferred Bella. Belloula is a nickname; specifically, my nickname for you."

"Oh," she answered quietly. "I suppose Bella is alright then."

Aro smiled graciously. "My apologies. Bella, then. Italian for beautiful, how fitting." He bowed slightly and took a few steps closer. "It's delightful to see you, little one. You came through the transformation well I see, despite your memory loss. It's not such a sad matter really, when one has eternity to live. A few decades is hardly much to lose."

Bella nodded. "I certainly don't know what I'm missing, so..."

She shrugged. Carlisle moved forward slowly from behind the throne, looking between the King and the tracker with slight apprehension.

"If I may, Aro; perhaps Bella's memory could be jogged by someone she has spent more time with, such as myself or Edward," he said softly. "She hardly knew either of you and one of us may be able to provide a detail that will help her to recall things."

Aro simply looked to Demetri who gently reached an arm back to steady the now slightly vibrating young vampire behind him. He felt her lean into his back and stand up on her tiptoes, pulling him down by the shoulder to force her mouth to his ear.

"I don't remember him," Bella whispered to him, completely oblivious to the shiver running down his spine as her breath caressed the sensitive skin of his ear. "But I feel... a little lonely and almost... sad when I look at him."

Bella had obviously underestimated vampire hearing, Demetri noted, as Carlisle faltered a step back, looking very much as if someone had punched him in the stomach. Edward looked equal parts pained and furious. Naturally, Felix looked as if he had stumbled accidentally upon the most delightful and humorous show.

Demetri patted her hip lightly and looked back at her over his shoulder, raising a finger gently to his lips. They would have to discuss how sensitive vampire senses were later, and he did not want her to provide them with personal accounts of her feelings if she chose not to. His kouklitsa looked back at him with a furrowed brow, obviously confused, but nodded.

He turned back to the blond coven leader and addressed his offer.

"Perhaps after Bella has settled in, we will discuss coming to speak with you and the younger Cullen," Demetri said with a shrug. "There are many subjects we must entertain and questions to address before I feel comfortable that she can make an informed decision on how and whether to speak with either of you."

Demetri could hear the faint sound of heartbeats approaching the throne room and Bella's head snapped to the door, a slow growl building in her throat. He turned to her, forcing her to look at him for a moment. Diverted from her careful stalking of the sounds of blood pumping just beyond the room, she looked up at him with heartbreaking frustration and whined. Demetri bit back a smile. She was positively adorable.

"Metri," she whimpered at him, lip pulled out in a quivering pout. "I can have it, right?"

He ran a hand through her hair fondly before wrapping his arms loosely around her waist. "Of course, Belloula. But remember what I said, yes? No biting anyone without a heartbeat."

Carlisle cleared his throat. "Please, Demetri," he said, eyes darting to the baby vampire in Demetri's arms apprehensively. "You have to know that Bella would never be comfortable feeding from a human being if all her memories were intact."

Bella, who had turned in Demetri's arms to eye the door intensely again, murmured distractedly before he could answer. "I'm okay with it."

Felix snickered while Demetri simply shrugged. "You heard her. She's okay with it."

Edward stepped forward determinedly from around the thrones and moved closer than anyone else, coming to a stop a few feet from them. Bella's eyes snapped to him, her form taught and vibrating as Demetri tightened his arms in an attempt to avoid the inevitable. She could certainly escape from the cage of his arms if she truly wanted to. Those heartbeats were getting incredibly close now and if Cullen were still anywhere near her when her meal arrived, he was going to live to regret that decision. The only reason she was as calm as she had been was because the sire call, compounded with the pull of true mates, gave Demetri a measure of control over her baser instincts and her extreme trust in him, as a result of those things, would give him the ability to largely calm and soothe her through a lot of newborn emotions and instincts the first year. But no matter how instinctually strong their bond was, nothing was going to get between a newborn and her first meal.

"Love, look at me," Edward pleaded, seemingly ignorant to or ignoring how tense she was. "This isn't who you are. Your father is the police chief, dedicated to preserving human life. In your normal mind, I swear, you would never want to harm a human."

Demetri shook his head at the younger vampire. "You are going to get bit if you don't back away," he told him mildly.

Edward glanced at the tracker, but fixed his gaze on Bella again. "Please, Love..."

Bella glanced back over her shoulder at Demetri before returning her gaze to the vampire who was standing dangerously close to the door. "Metri, I don't know who he is. But I'm hungry."

Demetri nodded, turning slightly to look at Carlisle. "I know, agapi mou," he whispered to her, before raising his voice to address the Coven leader. "Cullen, if you don't get him out of the way he's liable to lose a limb." Carlisle nodded, resigned, before he stepped forward and gently led his coven mate –or son if one asked him for the proper term- back behind the thrones. Edward resisted a moment, but the fight seemed to have flown out of him at the confirmation that Bella did not remember him.

Demetri turned his attention back to the bambina in his arms, bringing his mouth to her ear to speak to her quickly before the heartbeats steps away entered the room. Her body was tense, waiting, and at any moment she was going to spring from his arms. He couldn't have stopped this hunt had he wanted to.

"I will give you some room to work, kouklitsa. Welcome to your new life."

He released her and retreated next to Felix, who had stepped forward slightly so that both guards could watch over her while she ate. It was an instinctive urge for Demetri, to protect his mate while she was distracted with feeding, and for Felix it was simply supporting his friend. The door opened and there was a flash of Heidi's blood-red dress before a human came sailing into the room, directly towards Bella. She caught it with a snarl and immediately latched onto the man's neck, biting too hard on the artery and spraying the wall nearest to her with blood. Heidi peaked around the door, presumably to ensure the newborn was occupied, before she quickly brought forth two additional humans, unconscious, and dumped them unceremoniously on the floor.

Heidi retreated to the door before waving at Felix. She smiled at Demetri and mouthed, 'Congratulations!'

Demetri smiled slightly and nodded in acknowledgment before turning back to watch his little Belloula snarl lightly in frustration as her meal ran empty. She tossed the corpse to the ground with a pout, but then she saw the other humans. Her face lit up and she giggled as she ran to the next meal, biting at the wrist this time, thereby making the mess marginally better.

Felix whistled softly. "D, man, congrats. She's something else, I'll tell you that. How're you feeling about all this?"

Demetri shrugged one shoulder lightly as his mate moved to her last human, straddling the body and latching onto the neck again. More blood splattered across the wall and floor.

"I'm still adjusting to the protective and possessive feelings. It's a lot of change." His lips quirked up ever so slightly at the corner as he watched her finish her last meal and glance around for anymore. When she was confident no more humans awaited her, she looked around the throne room, eyes roaming until they fell on Demetri. She smiled.

"But to answer your question," he continued as she skipped over to him. "I could get used to it."


	5. Cleansing

Bella was smiling as she scampered back towards Demetri, feeling sated and strangely gluttonous. She'd had her doubts up until her teeth breached the first neck, honestly, that blood could possibly be as satisfying as it had smelled. Something in her head, apparently the partial and incomplete memories of before she was changed, had quietly reminded her that blood was nauseating. That something, however, had been proven woefully incorrect.

Blood was fucking amazing.

Demetri was looking at her with an amused expression when she stopped in front of him with a little hop and a grin, admiring the raven locks that framed his face. She had the distinct urge to tug on them. A snicker from next to him pulled her attention to a different vampire standing beside Demetri, causing her teeth to bare and her eyes to narrow. The identity of this threat was unknown to her and she found that something inside her, instincts most likely, was deeply uncomfortable with the unknown.

Demetri chuckled fondly and pulled her behind him, standing between her and the perceived problem.

"Hush, kouklista," he murmured. "That's only Felix. He's not very bright, but he will not harm you. He's... a friend, of sorts." The last words were muttered with a sort of disdain, as if the word 'friend' left a sour taste in her sire's mouth.

Bella felt her mouth immediately morph from bared teeth to a shy smile and her growling cut off abruptly. She supposed she should be surprised, or even wary, that Demetri's opinions had soo much influence over her automatic responses and emotions. The bitch of it was though, those same instincts he seemed to so intimately influence told her that she could trust him completely and without question.

"Hello Felix," she said softly, leaning out behind Demetri in greeting.

"Hello, Bambina," Felix replied, smirking. "Death suits you. Red is truly your color, beautiful."

Demetri sighed and Bella looked down at the mess she had made of herself with a giggle.

"Glad you approve," she said with a smile.

"Alright, principessa, time to get you cleaned up," Demetri said firmly, turning his back to his 'friend', for all intents and purposes dismissing the other vampire. He led her gently by the elbow, pulling her to face the thrones. "We have things to discuss, yes?"

Before she could answer, he was saying their goodbyes and accepting the congratulations (for what, she wondered) and dismissals of the kings. The one who had called her Love' looked strangely terrified to let her out of his sight, and she found the way he seemed to lean forward as if his body was straining towards her without his permission unnerving. Obviously, there was a history there that she had no recollection of and it made her uncomfortable.

They left the throne room swiftly and despite Demetri's brisk pace, Bella felt herself dragging her feet. She wasn't trying to be difficult, but she felt a bit sloshy and slow and she was forced to face the reality that she may have overindulged a bit.

"Metri," she whined, tugging on his hand where he had enveloped hers back in the throne room, "I'm tired."

Demetri glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression. "I am sorry to contradict you, but I assure you Belloula, vampires do not tire."

"This one does," she told him with a pout before a mischievous thought occurred to her. She smiled at him innocently and after studying her for another moment, Demetri rolled his eyes and returned his gaze forward

She waited until the tall vampire turned all the way back around before swiftly pulling her hand from his. Before he could respond, she jumped, wrapping her legs around his waist and pressing her chest against his back. Her arms wrapped around her sire's neck, clinging, and she felt his chuckle rumble through her body.

"Really, kouklitsa?" He complained with a fond sigh. "Must we both wear the remnants of your meal?"

She laughed into the ebony strands that were tickling her nose. "Looks like it."

"So it does," he acceded with a shake of his head. Demetri kept walking, presumably towards his rooms, his hands moving to cup the backs of her thighs to help support her. Bella attempted and failed to stifle a gasp at his touch. Why did everything about him feel so damn good?

"Problems, Belloula?" He asked at the sound she made, his smirk evident in his tone.

"Nope," Bella all but squeaked in response. His answering chuckle was accompanied by his hands squeezing lightly and she buried her face in his shoulder in an attempt to control any more embarrassing noises from escaping.

When they arrived in his quarters, Demetri let her down inside the bedroom and crooked his finger for her to follow him to the bathroom. He reached into the shower, turning the knob and adjusting the water before he turned back to her and smiled.

"Those clothes," he asked her, indicating her current outfit. "How fond of them are you?"

Thinking of the scratchy denim rubbing annoyingly against her thighs and the barely comfortable, wet cotton stretched across her stomach, she wrinkled her nose. "Not very."

Demetri nodded. "I'm not surprised. Clothes can be... difficult, for a newborn. You can remove them yourself if you have no great love for them. We'll simply dispose of them after." He tilted his head to study her, seemingly in thought. "If I send a female coven mate to help you get dressed, can you contain your urge to bite all things new and unfamiliar?"

Bella considered his question and found herself distinctly uncomfortable with the thought of being alone with an unknown vampire, even a female one. "Why can't you help me?"

Demetri sucked in a breath and closed his eyes momentarily before finally opening them once more, his gaze intense and dark. "Because the first time I see you bared to me, I can assure you principessa, I will not be helping you to put clothes ON."

She swallowed and tried to keep her mind from imagining what exactly that meeting would look like. Bella wasn't blind or dumb, she could feel the tension that existed between them and she surely hoped it was heading somewhere. Preferably somewhere fun and sexy and with very little clothing. But she didn't understand why she felt the way she did, not yet, and it seemed that until she did, her sire wasn't going to let her act on those feelings. As far as Bella was concerned, this conversation he implied they were having soon, needed to happen as quickly as possible. That meant a shower. And a shower apparently meant a random woman she didn't know.

Bella looked at her toes and fidgeted. "You promise she'll be safe?"

Demetri's eyes softened and he stepped in front of her, pulling her loosely to him and pressing his lips to her forehead. "I swear it," he said firmly. "She will be nothing but polite, you have my word. And Belloula, I keep my word, unwaveringly and painfully if it is necessary."

She looked up to meet those ruby red eyes and nodded. Of course, she'd trust him.

"Good girl," he murmured, taking a deep inhale against her skin before seeming to force himself to take a step back. "Run along and wash off the half of your dinner you were unable to consume. I will send someone in to assist you."

Demetri turned on his heel and left the room.

Bella looked after him for a moment before moving to strip off her bloody clothes. She gripped the bottom of her t-shirt and began to pull it over her head. She jumped slightly as it ripped in half and she was left holding the remnants, blinking slowly at the tatters.

She giggled as she dropped the pieces of what had once been a shirt to the floor, not even bothering to attempt not to rip all the remaining pieces of clothing from her body. Cautiously, considering what had just become of her outfit, she pulled the shower curtain back and slipped into the warm water.

The heat of the shower felt lovely on her cold skin and Bella wondered how cold water would feel, considering how incredibly chilled she was now. She barely caught herself from adjusting the water temperature before she remembered that based on what she did to her clothes, she didn't want to imagine what she could do to this shower.

Bella smelled her before she heard her, the sound of a female voice somewhat deep and sultry sounding out into the tiled room.

"Do you need help with shampoo or anything, sweetie?" The silky voice asked, sounding genuinely helpful. Bella swallowed down her instinctive growl and reminded herself that Demetri would never send her someone who would hurt her.

"Yes, please," she managed to say with only minimal teeth gritting. Slowly a pale hand reached out to grasp the shower curtain and pull it over so slightly to the side to reveal mahogany hair and a wide smile.

"Let me get that for you," the female vampire said helpfully, reaching behind the water for the obviously new women's shampoo that was waiting in the shower rack. Despite herself, Bella found herself being won over by the woman's genuine nature and she relaxed slightly, sending her helper a small smile.

The vampire grinned back, squeezing the shampoo into Bella's outstretched palm. "I'm Heidi, by the way."

"Bella."

"I know," Heidi told her with a conspiratorial wink. "I'm the one who had to make sure the bambina got her first meal."

"Oh?" Bella asked absentmindedly, trying not to moan as she massaged the shampoo into her scalp. Everything just felt so damn wonderful as a vampire.

"Yep," Heidi affirmed, letting the shower curtain drop but staying just on the other side. "That's what I do. I'm the fisher, the bait. People are drawn to me and I make sure everyone here in Volterra gets fed." Bella could hear the almost maternal pride in the other vampire's voice as she explained. "It's my gift."

"Thank you," Bella told her as she washed the shampoo from her hair. "For the dinner, I mean. Um, could you help me with the body wash?"

Heidi's face appeared around the curtain again, still smiling. "It's my pleasure," she said, and Bella wondered if she meant providing the meals or the help in the shower.

When Bella was clean and dried, hair brushed until it gleamed under Heidi's attention, the women turned to the matter of her wardrobe.

"What do you like to wear?" Heidi asked, dragging her towards the closet where an enormous amount of pants, t-shirts, dresses, and overcoats hung.

"I don't know," Bella admitted, eyeing the closet in consternation. "I don't remember, but I will say that I fucking despise blue jeans at the moment."

Heidi laughed as she ran her hands through the clothes, considering each option before moving onto the next. "Thank goodness, because jeans are positively hideous." She glanced at her charge and then pulled a few things from the closet, draping them over her arm before pulling Bella back to the bedroom. "Let's try these first and we'll see what kind of fabrics you like against your skin."

An hour and a rather annoyed Heidi later saw Bella keenly aware that the vast majority of her wardrobe would be going to waste.

"So that's it," said the beautiful woman in front of Bella, pushing a tendril of slightly frazzled hair from her face. "No linen, no denim, absolutely no velvet, no wool, no flannel, no cotton or cotton blends, and no lyrca. You will wear, apparently, silk, satin, and very few and specific linen blends with the slightest hint of spandex. That...that's going to limit your clothing options."

Bella shrugged. Most of the things that she had touched in all of the outfits in her closet felt like rocks, grating on her sensitive skin. She sat now wearing a green satin shift dress and a pair of slightly stretchy boy short panties. She was confident that bras were the spawn of the devil at this point, but she had managed to find a soft cup bralette that lacked underwire, so at least she had one she could wear.

Heidi smiled at her and shook her head. "You know, if you insist on wearing only those little shift dresses that look like they belong in the bedchamber, you are going to drive Demetri insane over a very short amount of time."

Bella perked up at that. "You think he'll like it?"

Heidi snorted. "Yes. I think he'll like it. Never have seen that man like this." She smiled softly as she gathered the outfits up from around where Bella sat cross-legged in the center of the bed. "He's always been so distant, you know? Demetri's a gentleman, but he doesn't really connect with people or spend any time worrying about them."

The vampire strode to the closet, hanging up the rejected clothing and separating out what would work for the newborn she had been helping all afternoon. "You changed that for him."

Bella eyed the other woman curiously, completely confused as to what her helper was trying to tell her. "I don't understand."

"Look," Heidi said with a sigh, eying the baby in front of her. "It's not my place to say too much and you and Demetri still have a lot to talk about. I just- I guess I'm mostly happy to see him really engage with someone. I mean, Felix is his best friend, but even him Demetri keeps at a distance. He's always refined and he's always polite, but that's it. There's never been anymore, you know? But he's- He's not just tolerating you. He's enjoying being around you. You haven't been awake half a day and it's already different."

She sighed and sat down on the bed, pulling Bella's hands into hers. "I just want you to know that you're special to him and to treasure that," she said. "Demetri may not bond with a lot of people, but that doesn't mean we don't care for him. He's family, and I want good things for him. So be careful with him, and be grateful. He deser-"

A loud throat-clearing echoed in the doorway and both women turned to see an impassive Demetri, arms crossed, leaning against the doorway. Bella jumped at the sound. How the hell did she miss his approach? Probably because she had been too busy trying to sort through what the hell her new friend was trying to get across.

"Heidi, if you're quite done with your lecture..."

Heidi laughed and squeezed Bella's hands once more before releasing her and standing. "Hardly a lecture, Demetri. Just a little friendly girl talk."

She crossed to where Demetri stood and stretched on her toes, kissing him gently on the cheek. Demetri sighed and fixed her with a small glare, which just made Heidi laugh again.

"Nice meeting you, Bella," Heidi called over her shoulder as she left, shooting the girl a genuine smile.

"You too," Bella answered slowly, still trying to sort through their conversation. "And thank you."

Then Heidi was gone. Demetri was still looking at her with that unreadable expression and Bella could feel herself squirming under it, becoming more uncomfortable by the minute.

Finally, she found herself blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

"I despise clothing and I'm pretty sure I never want to wear a bra again."

A startled chuckle escaped from Demetri at that and he smirked down at her, shaking his head.

"Well, isn't that a thought that has potential," he muttered. He turned slowly and moved back towards the sitting room.

"Come, Belloula. It seems we have even more to discuss."


	6. Translucent

Demetri walked towards the solar and the wet bar, his little mate trailing behind him. He stopped to make a scotch while Bella stood still in the middle of the room, presumably waiting. He chuckled when he turned back and she was still standing statue still. Learning to act human was such an arduous task for babies and until then they were simply...

Well, inhuman.

"Sit, Belloula," he told her, pointing towards the couch in a mimicry their first talk. This time, he poured her a white Bordeaux, although her drink was placed in a thick, metal goblet rather than glass, and settled next to her on the leather sofa. Demetri smiled encouragingly when she hesitated to take the drink, likely worried she would crush it, until she tentatively acquiesced and sank down next to him.

"Metri, I didn't do something... upsetting, did I?" Bella said, glancing at him tentatively. "Heidi was just talking, we weren't saying anything bad or anything."

She was biting her lip and sat with her legs crossed under her, Indian style, while she held her wine in both hands the way one might hold a soda. She did very much look like a toddler about to be scolded.

Demetri felt a small warmth erupt at the base of his spine when she called him by that nickname. Anyone else would find themselves corrected immediately as to what his name was, and any subsequent usage of the incorrect name would likely result in loss of a limb. But when SHE said it, 'Metri' was like a caress on his senses. He felt his lips quirk up.

"No, kouklitsa, you certainly aren't in trouble," he told her, running his fingers through the ends of her hair where they billowed down near his hand on the back of the sofa. "There are simply some things I need to remind you of that we discussed before, and what we'll call a little vampiric introduction if you will. Perhaps you have questions as well?"

He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment when his Belloula nodded.

"I am aware you do not remember the precise conversation, but do you recall the knowledge of what, exactly, mates and true mates are?"

Bella nodded and Demetri bit back a sigh of relief. Mating was not something he thought it wise to dwell on now, not when his instincts to bite, again, and thrust and mark anew had increased so exponentially since she awoke.

"And you have felt how easily you trust me, yes? You believe unwaveringly that I can and will protect you, correct?"

His bambina took a deep gulp of her 4,000 euros a bottle, 6-year-old Liber Pater and smiled shyly at him. "Yes, I really do feel safe with you."

Demetri tried not to smile at the way she was devouring one of his best wines like juice. "That pull, kouklitsa, that draw, which makes you crave my lips on yours and my hands on your body. Do you know what that means?"

Demetri felt the air around them shift, watched Bella's eyes darken, her pupils dilating as they moved to fill her stunning cerise eyes, and he swallowed. Hard.

"Not just Sire," she said quietly, her voice alluring and husky. "Mates."

"TRUE Mates," Demetri corrected, his own voice deepened as he found his eyes drawn over and over to his mark on her neck, the place where he'd sunk his teeth into the creamy expanse of her flesh and drank the very life from her veins. He brought his hand forward to rub his thumb over the bite and she shuddered under his touch, her eyelids fluttering shut. In an instinctive dance that was as old as vampire kind, his kouklitsa rolled her head to the side, exposing even more of the delicate curve of her neck to her mate in innate submission and unintentional invitation.

Demetri could feel his body respond without his permission in kind, an approving purr rumbling through his chest as he leaned forward compulsively and pressed his lips to his bitemark. He skimmed his teeth across her flesh as she whimpered slightly, a half confused, half aroused sound that set his deadened veins on fire. He was vaguely aware of the glass in his right hand shattering into a million shards at the same time he brought the hand that had been toying with the strands of Bella's hair to fist the silky strands instead. Demetri inhaled the scent of himself on her skin as he moved closer to her, desire warring with the unremitting control he had exhibited for over a thousand years.

With herculean effort, Demetri stilled and forced himself to close his eyes, to hold his breath, waiting for the heady scent of his little mate to dissipate and the sight of his mark of her skin to fade slightly into the background. When he had retained some semblance of conscious thought, he moved backward and released her beautiful hair, settling himself slightly back on the couch before he opened his eyes to glimpse Bella's response.

She sat staring at him, wide-eyed and clearly unnerved, even as the scent of her arousal still permeated the air. Demetri watched her clench her eyes shut and clearly fight for some clarity, and he decided to take the moment to give them both a slight breather as he retrieved a fresh scotch.

When he returned to the couch, both parties had calmed and Bella took another deep drink of her wine, her throat constricting rapidly as she swallowed.

"That was..." she began before trailing off, clearly at a loss on how to finish that sentence.

"An aphrodesiac, a narcotic, and a head rush all at once?" Demetri suggested with a wry smile.

"Yes! That!" She agreed with a breathless laugh. "Metri, what just happened?"

"That, my principessa, is mating," he answered her with a smirk. "When I touched my mark and you bared your neck, our instincts kicked into overdrive. Were I a younger creature with less years to develop my composure, I suspect my teeth and other parts of my body would currently be buried inside of you, and neither of us would be the wiser until the mating bond was complete."

Bella took another gulp and frowned when she found her cup empty. Demetri chuckled before he took her glass from her and crossed back to the wet bar to refill it.

A small voice behind him caused him to pause in freshening her drink as the uncertainty and insecurity that permeated his mate's tone threatened to knock his knees out from under him. "Do you not WANT to complete the mating bond?"

Demetri took a deep breath before he resumed refilling the goblet. He returned to her on the couch and placed her refilled wine next to his scotch on the table before he pulled her towards him, settling her into his lap. His Belloula stared at her knees, this strange discomfort forcing her eyes from his, and Demetri found he did not care for that one bit. He tucked a finger under her chin and brought her eyes up to meet his.

"Psychi Mou," Demetri implored her with a tender look no one had ever received from him before. "I want you very, very much. I crave you more than I can stand and were you anyone else but my mate, my very own, I would have had your adorable little ass bared to me and pounded you into this couch many times over already."

"But you aren't just anyone," he said with a smile, running a finger along her cheekbone and watching her bite her lip. "You are my mate, my UNTOUCHED mate, and the first time I have you, I intend to be at least halfway sane. Not completely intoxicated on those vampiric pheromones you are currently murdering my self-control with. I won't be able to be completely clear headed; that, my little mate, is made impossible by the sheer sensuality that is you. But I won't be an unhinged, rutting animal either." He smirked at her. "At least, not the first time."

Bella smiled lightly and seemed to relax a little against him, and Demetri decided that perhaps that was quite enough talking for the time being. "Perhaps a break, Belloula? How would you like to do something a bit more fun?"

He smiled as she brightened immediately, turning towards him with wide, expectant eyes.

"How would you feel about a bit of training?"

45 minutes later, Demetri, Felix, and Bella stood in the courtyard used for combat skills, the older vampires debating on how to begin teaching Bella the basics. Carlisle Cullen, the Witch Twins, and Marcus had settled themselves around the courtyard, presumably to watch the Bambina train and Demetri noticed Bella wringing her hands in a distinctly human gesture of nervousness. Not wanting to allow her to increase her discomfort anymore over what was supposed to be a fun and relaxing activity, Demetri threw his hands up in resignation.

"Fine, Felix," he grumbled slightly, pulling his Belloula in front of him and wrapping his arms around her waist. "You're the combat expert, I will defer to your expertise. This ONCE." He raised a meaningful eyebrow to ensure his friend was aware that he would not often be deferring to him at all often, especially when the matter involved his mate.

Felix nodded in acceptance with a surprisingly humble smile. "I got it, D. Thanks for trusting me with this."

Demetri inclined his head slightly, his face carefully blanked. There was no reason to tell the vampire that Demetri acquiesced to stall Bella's nerves before they blossomed into full-blown panic, not out of some sense of comradery. Leaning forward, Demetri pressed his lips to his mate's ear and fought back a chuckle as he felt her shiver.

"Listen to Felix, bambina," he murmured, "Training is important and Felix is very knowledgeable."

He went to pull away but Bella grabbed tightly to his arm, stilling his retreat.

"Don't leave me here alone, Metri."

Her discomfort was palatable at the thought of being left with the unfamiliar and if her grip on his arm was anything to judge by, she had no intention of being forced to deal with that discomfort alone.

Demetri's face softened and he gently kissed her temple. "I'm not leaving, kouklitsa," he assured her. "I'll only be right over there, so I can easily duck from the body parts you are bound to rip off Felix and toss about."

Felix scowled at him and slowly, as if it caused her great pain, Bella released his arm with a shy smile and allowed him to retreat to the side of the space.

Demetri leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, noticing that every other vampire in the room had their attention fixed on Bella and Felix in the middle of the courtyard as well. Felix cracked his neck and grinned at her, which she returned with a small, albeit somewhat forced, smile of her own.

"Alright Bambina," Felix said, crouching slightly as he moved into a ready position 30 or 40 feet away from her. "Let's start with some basic defense. I'm going to charge you and all I want you to do is try to dodge. Okay?"

Bella nodded warily and Felix winked at her before his face fell into a smooth mask and he sprinted towards her.

Everything happened very quickly, even by vampire standards. Bella's eyes widened and her fear of the approaching threat became clear almost as soon as he began moving, newborn instincts overcoming common sense. Felix never made it to Bella and instead found himself falling face forward towards the courtyard stone. His descent was stopped by the immobility of his ankles and he looked down to see his feet encased in what looked like translucent, greenish-blue tar. The substance shackled him completely. Glancing up at Bella, his mouth fell open as he saw her entire body encased in the same substance like a second skin, making her look watery and ethereal.

Bella's eyes cut to Demetri's, wide and panicked.

"Metri?!" she yelled, flexing her hands inside her prison and panicking further when the substance moved with her.

Demetri noted with growing apprehension that her voice sounded muffled behind the liquid shield that was covering her from head to toe. He ran to her and watched with fascination as the substance retreated a little, folding into itself as it got smaller and smaller, with every step he took towards her until it disappeared completely. His Belloula shook as she folded herself into his chest, clearly terrified and uncertain of what just happened to her.

Felix's voice rang out a few steps behind them, sounding shakey.

"So, hey there, bambina," he joked with a wobbly smile. "Not real sure what this stuff is, but I can't actually move my feet. At all. Any chance you could maybe make this let me go?"

Bella pulled her face from Demetri's chest and eyed him warily. "I don't know... I..."

She frowned and pulled away from Demetri slightly. Her face scrunched in adorable concentration and Felix stared at his feet, waiting for something to happen. Nothing changed.

She turned back to Demetri and shrugged helplessly. "I don't even know what I did, Metri. How do I get rid of it?"

Demetri tilted his head as he considered the situation, but his thoughts were interrupted when a throat was cleared behind him. Turning quickly towards the sound, he saw Marcus approaching them with his usual flat affect.

"If I may, bambina?" Marcus inquired in his gravelly voice, granting Demetri's mate a very small smile. "I have a little theory I'd like to test."

Bella stepped quickly to Demetri's side and looked to him for his opinion. When Demetri gave her an encouraging smile, she glanced at Marcus and nodded.

"Please," she agreed quietly, glancing nervously towards where her attacker was still firmly tethered.

Marcus turned towards Felix, who was looking increasingly uneasy. "Felix, do you intend to charge or attack our Bella in any way, once you are released from your bonds?"

Felix shook his head forcefully. "No. I think training is gonna have to wait for another day."

As soon as Felix confirmed he would not be moving against Bella, the watery shackles around his ankles folded in on themselves and disappeared.

Demetri's eyes widened and he met Marcus' meaningful gaze. His little mate wasn't just a shield. Her shield was at least partially sentient, and that was something that was completely unheard of.

He let out a sigh and pulled Bella back into his chest.

"Well, fuck," he muttered. Training just got infinitely more complicated.


	7. Home

Edward and Alice Cullen stood at the public entrance to Volterra Castle awaiting the arrival of a specific mutt. Jasper Hale, who had recently joined his wife in Italy, stood a few feet behind them and although Alice knew he was distinctly against the idea, she was thankful he had come with them all the same.

"Are you sure this is going to help?" Edward hissed under his breath.

Alice sighed and answered for what must have been the 100th time. "I can't be sure, Edward, you know that! I can't see around the dogs. But Jacob Black has brought Bella back to humanity before. He's reached her when no one else could. If anyone can bring her back to us, back to a semblance of being human, it's him."

She didn't mention that 'back to us' was never going to entail back into Edward's life as a love interest, and she carefully guarded that thought away. Edward may not understand, but she did. Mates were mates, unbreakable, and true mates were even more. There was a time when Edward and Bella could have been forever, she had SEEN it. It would have been beautiful, it would have. Eventually, Bella would have been changed, it was fate and the result of nearly all the possible paths that were available. No choice would have changed it, no whim altered it, assuming all the players remained the same. That was before everything fell to ashes at their feet. James happened and James, well... James changed everything. The attack forced Edward to abhor his own presence in Bella's life with even more vitriol than before, and Bella became insecure and weak-willed, desperate to please and terrified he'd leave her at the slightest hint of her human failings.

Alice had searched her visions in the months following and nothing, nothing but the path she had forced her family on would have allowed Bella to live past her 19th birthday, as a human or a vampire. If Jasper didn't lose the battle with his bloodlust, Edward would have instead and he wouldn't have been able to stop. If they had cancelled the party altogether and stayed, Victoria would have eventually gone to the Volturi and when they came to Forks to see to the problem of the human, Demetri would not have been with them. Bella would have died, painfully, and nothing any of the Cullen's could have done would have resulted in anything but their deaths as well. Nothing but leaving altogether fixed things so that there was even a chance she might live, and that still left Bella at the mercy of the supernatural world. But Victoria wasn't making decisions, or really, she was just making far too many and never following through, and what else was Alice to do? Then Bella jumped off a cliff and changed every vision that had come to her up until that point, ruining every contingency plan and unraveling every previous destiny. Even then, there were so many chances, possibilities, that to follow them all to the end of the unraveled threads of choices was impossible, and so many ended in someone she loved dying. If they did this, or that-

...if, if, if...

Now Bella was changed, she was mated to a high ranking Volturi guard, and Alice was flying blind, her visions regarding Bella having died right along with the girl's heartbeat. But once upon a time, Bella had been her very best friend and the future they could have had together...

Well. Alice simply was not going to simply let that part go without one hell of a fight. She had no girlfriends. Esme was as a mother and Rosalie was a megabitch and she was so damn lonely for a little female companionship. But unless Bella got at least a little of her humanity back, that beautiful future would never even begin. If this newly awakened Bella had no interest in seeking out who she was or would have been, Alice would just bring a bit of that humanity to her.

Too bad the boy was a werewolf; that fact would make sure this was a pleasant visit for exactly no one whether they be canine or vampiric. Then again, at least he wasn't in danger of anyone wanting to eat him. It had taken a lot of sweet talking to get Aro to agree to grant the pup a safe visit under the auspicious of attempting to jog Bella's memory, but in truth Aro was more than a little obsessed with all things Bella and there was a period of 4 or 5 months in recent history that no one had yet been able to account for. A touch of Jacob's hand would allow Aro access to all that juicy information of what, exactly, she had been up to when the Cullen family had left her, not to mention a glimpse into the workings of a previously unknown pack of shapeshifters. Aro had a serious fetish for knowledge. It was simply too much of an opportunity to pass up, even if Caius was going to pout something awful for the duration of the 'filthy wolf's invasion.'

Alice felt a wave of calm and serenity wash over her, laced through with a small dose of unconditional love and she sent Jasper back a smile and her gratitude. That man was everything to her. Her mate, her husband, her lover, and her confidante, Jasper was the only thing in this world that would ever truly matter. She loved others deeply, but none of it would mean anything without him. He gifted her a small smile in return and she turned back to her brother who was practically vibrating with agitation.

Finally, Edward stilled and he tilted his head. "He's here," he murmured, his eyebrows knitting together in annoyance. "And he's thinking very loud and rude things."

* * *

Jacob strolled towards the front of the castle in Volterra with false ease. The pixie leech hadn't given him a lot of information, just that Bella was NOT actually dead, funeral notwithstanding apparently, and that she needed him. Of course, if Bella thought she needed him, she'd have asked herself but then again, when had the girl ever known to ask for what would help and not hurt her?

Her death (what he thought was her death) had destroyed him. What was the fucking point of this life without Bells in it? He loved her, loved her down to his very bones, and if she was gone then breathing just lost all meaning.

He wondered if she was truly alive, but he suspected one way or another her heart wasn't beating anymore. He didn't really trust the Cullens, but he figured if she was dead, at least they served themselves up on a silver platter. If his Bells was gone, he'd kill them or go down trying, hopefully both if he had his way. The sickly-sweet scent of bleach and sugar hit his nose and he sneezed, knowing he was about to be assaulted on all sides by that nauseating stench, likely for at least a few hours.

"Hello Jacob," rang out the tiny one's voice like chimes. It grated on his sensitive ears, ironically like a dog whistle.

"Pixie," Jacob greeted with the slightest nod. He spotted Edward and his teeth ground together. "Cullen," he spat out, ignoring the blond behind the Pixie.

'She'd be home and safe with me if you weren't so fucking emo,' he thought caustically at the mind reader. Edward flinched as if he had been stabbed.

"I know," the vampire said quietly, miserably.

Jacob's eyes narrowed. "Where's Bells?"

Alice clapped her hands together in excitement, bringing all eyes back to her. "First, you have to meet Aro and the other kings," she explained, looping her arm through the blond leech's arm and dragging him towards the interior of the castle. "Then they'll bring Bella in and you can talk to her."

Jacob followed behind with Edward bringing up the rear, making Jacob's wolf howl and claw to escape at the perceived threat at his back. Each step echoing down the stone corridor sounded to him like a death knoll. When Jacob had first received the call from the tiny vampire, he had listened carefully and then simply packed a bag and climbed from his window without a word to anyone. His ticket was waiting for him at the airport, and somehow a passport had been secured for him. If he'd told his dad where he was going, Sam would have ordered him not to go. If he had phased, Sam would have done it then. Instead, he ran without word nor warning to anyone, knowing there would be hell to pay when (or if) he ever made it back home.

Didn't matter though. For Bella, anything; he'd give anything.

The group arrived at two large wooden doors and Jacob noted that he had never felt as much as if he was going to crawl out of his fucking skin as he did here, surrounded on all sides by the enemy. This was Quileute wolf hell. Alice let them into the room and the vampires seated upon the platform like royalty were somehow worse, with their papery skin and deepened smell.

"Welcome, Jacob!" The one in the middle greeted him, standing up and approaching slowly with a calculating smile on his thin-skinned face. "I am Aro, and these are my brothers, Cauis and Marcus. We're delighted to have you."

The one called Cauis snorted at that and Jacob smiled. 'Feeling is mutual, buddy,' he thought.

"It's a pleasure," Aro purred, extending his hand. Jacob eyed the offering and grimaced. He wasn't sure that he could keep his wolf from exploding out of him if he actually had to touch one of these things.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Jacob told him bluntly.

Aro's eyes hardened and he smiled coldly. Danger seemed to ripple across the air and crimson eyes flashed at his refusal, causing the hackles on Jacob's wolf to raise.

"I'm afraid this is the cost," he said plainly, threat and warning infused effortlessly into his tone. "If you want to see Isabella, you'll have to play by my rules."

"Don't be rude, Jacob!" The pixie hissed from behind him and Jacob took a step back in suspicion.

The blonde Cullen Jacob had never spoken to before clenched his teeth and took moved forward. "He'll do it, Aro," the leech said reluctantly. "He loves her too much not to. Just tell him why, and he'll do it."

Aro huffed and eyed Jacob with annoyance and barely leashed violence before his face cleared.

"Fine," he acceded smoothly, in direct opposition to his mood moments ago. "I am a soul reader. A single touch, and I can see every thought in that wolfy brain of yours and I will know your intentions for your time here in Volterra. I must verify you aren't a threat."

The vampire extended his hand once more with another flash of quickly smothered impatience and waited.

Jacob could tell just from the hungry look in Aro's eyes that accessing him as a possible threat was not the only, and probably not even the main reason Aro wanted to see inside his head. Edward made a small sound of agreement behind him and Jacob sighed. It didn't really matter what his intentions were, because Jacob was going to give in anyway, just like the other Cullen had said. Dangle the possibility of Bells in front of him and he would do anything, be anything. It was like imprinting with none of the few perks that came with it.

Steeling himself for the bitch fit his wolf was about to throw, Jacob grasped the vampire's hand and planted his feet to keep himself from attacking. It was unbelievably painful, denying the change that ran up his spine so forcefully, but he managed it.

When Aro finally released him, the vampire was looking at him with something akin to pity.

"Un amore così profondo," he murmured, shaking his head.

Aro retook his seat and sighed, glancing to his brother Marcus who gave no indication that he was even aware anyone was in the room. He turned back to his audience and met the eyes of a vampire in the back. "Felix, be a dear and fetch them from their room please."

Jacob cocked his head at the mention of a 'they' instead of a 'her' but held his tongue. Edward stepped to the space beside him and murmured softly enough that no else could hear.

"Yes, THEY. We don't have much time, so listen carefully," he said frantically. "These people took her and they've made her into something neither of us ever wanted for her. Jacob, be prepared. She lost her memory, they gave her to a monster, and now they intend to make her one. We can't let that happen, we can't let-"

Edward's frantic whispering was interrupted by the return of Felix, who was trailed by a poised and seemingly nonplussed vampire with a hint of a smaller female behind him. Jacob froze, watching the pair enter the room and move swiftly to stand off to the side. The male always kept the female tucked behind him and ensured that he was always between her and every other occupant in the room, with the exemption of Felix.

"Bellezza, come now," Aro crooned towards the pair of them with an indulgent smile. "No need to be frightened. Come, stand beside your Demetri and say hello to your old friend."

The male (Demetri apparently) looked behind him and smiled slightly. "It's alright, kouklitsa. I've got you. Come."

When the small vampire stepped out from behind Demetri's form and tucked herself into his side, Jacob felt his knees almost buckle. There she stood, his Bells, and yet not his Bells anymore.

"Do you see what they have done to her?!" Edward hissed quietly from behind him.

And Jacob did see, he did. She was paler than she should be and she smelled terrible and her red eyes were unbelievably disconcerting, but in the end, she was still Bella. He looked at her wearing some sort of silky dress that she wouldn't have been caught dead in with a look of curiosity on her face and her adorable nose scrunched up because he knew he smelled horrible to her too and all he could think to feel was elated that she was alive. He had always thought it would be better for her to die, really die, rather than be a bloodsucker but now, he just didn't care. Any Bella, in any form, was better than no Bella at all.

He swallowed heavily and forced his face into a toothy smile. "Hi Bells. Guess you don't remember me, huh?"

Demetri narrowed his eyes and tilted his head towards the girl curled into his side. "Anything, bambina?"

Bella frowned and peered into Jacob's face, searching for something she couldn't quite grasp. "No, it's kind of like the Cullen's. I don't remember but I... feel things. He feels like warmth and happiness and like... like home?"

Jacob's eyes closed as he clenched his jaw against the sob that threatened to rip from his mouth. He felt like home to her. _Of course_ he felt like home, he was home, would have been home, would have loved to be that for her for the rest of her life.

She took a step towards him and Jacob stood as still as possible, not wanting to scare her or risk grabbing her and pulling her to him compulsively like a child clutches a blanket. His wolf grumbled, but was much less venomous against her than any other leech, as if the animal knew the man was in pain and couldn't bring himself to make it worse.

Demetri's eyes widened in alarm and he stepped forward, placing a hand on Bella's shoulder.

"That's not a wise idea, Belloula," he warned. "Your instincts, and his, are not compatible."

She smiled up at the tall vampire and Jacob could see the adoration there, the trust. It hurt some parts of his heart and soothed others. "Metri, don't worry. I just... in my soul, I know I can trust him. He won't hurt me."

Demetri hesitated, but he removed his hand, even if he shadowed her the entire way until she stood but a few scant feet from Jacob. He had the overwhelming urge to touch her darkened hair and shoved his hands in his pockets so they wouldn't do it without his permission.

"Um, Jacob?" Bella asked, twirling her hair around a finger and with a tentative smile that made his heart clench. "I'm sorry I don't remember you, but it was nice of you to come and visit with me and show Aro your memories. He's putting together a little book for me with what he sees, so you'll have helped me with that."

Jacob swallowed hard and nodded. "Hey, no problem, Bells. Anything for you, always." He glanced at the vampire behind Bella and jutted his chin out to indicate him. "So, uh, who's the shadow? You still trip so much as a vampire you need someone to follow you around and catch you?"

Bella smiled brightly and glanced back at Demetri, who looked down at her with a faint, but fond, grin. "This is my mate, Demetri."

Jacob bit back his first response, which was a scream at the unfairness of all of this shit, and nodded to the vampire. Mates, well, that explained it. His Bells had been so broken, so sad, so fucking fragile. This girl in front of him may have been the living dead, but she was alive for the first time in months. Bella had been getting better, she really had. Slowly but surely, Jacob had been putting all her pieces back together and another 6 months and he would have had her where she needed to be, he knew it. But this Bella, she was bright and curious and untainted and she didn't need fixing. And she had a mate, and that was just as sacred as an imprint.

In an ideal world, a human Bella would have loved him and they would have been together for the rest of their lives. That was where they had been headed, he thought with excruciating sadness. He almost had her heart. But Bella wasn't human anymore. He would have fought tooth and nail anyway to keep her from Edward, because the guy would just ruin her again. He would never stop fighting to keep her from someone who had left her in the fucking woods like a piece of garbage. But this guy, a mate, and a whole Bella... between Jacob and Bells one of them could be happy and as far as he was concerned, it was the important one.

So he forced another smile for the man who would hold the love of his life for the rest of forever, long after Jacob himself passed, and in a mostly steady voice, he said, "It's nice to meet you."

A moment passed where Demetri met his eyes and seemed to see everything he didn't say, wouldn't say, before the vampire nodded and offered him a wry smile full of understanding of words unspoken. "Likewise."

Aro cleared his throat and all attention turned back to him. "So, Jacob, shall we get you settled into a room or would you prefer to stay in the city?"

"Actually, I think it's time for me to head home," Jacob answered. Edward hissed but Jacob fixed him with a glare.

'I'm not your ally, asshole,' he thought. 'You let her be happy. After what you did to her she deserves it, fucker. Don't mess this up for her.'

Bella tilted her head and looked at him, a little bit upset. "But didn't you come to visit me? Do you have to leave so soon?"

Jacob smiled at her, sadness leaking through the expression before he reigned it back in. "Actually, I just came to see if you were safe. And happy." He glanced at Demetri and then gave her a knowing look. "And you are."

She smiled brightly. "I am." She reached out and brushed her fingertips down his arm. "Thank you, Jacob. I may not remember you, but it is sweet of you to care. Maybe... maybe we could email or something? You could tell me stories and we could just stay in touch or something?"

"Sure, Bells," he told her, knowing he'd probably get ordered never to speak to her again and not knowing if he'd be strong enough to fight it. He'd try though. Anything for her.

"I'll take you back to the airport," the pixie sang out, looking distinctly like the cat that ate the cream. Jacob backed out of the room, watching Bella as long as possible, memorizing her in his mind and knowing he would likely never see her again.

The blond Cullen walked beside him. "I'm sorry," he said, and he actually sounded like he meant it. Jacob nodded and finally turned around.

The last thing he saw was Bella looking up at Demetri with a smile, asking what they were going to do now, and Demetri stroking her cheek as if she was the most precious thing in the universe. And Jacob could only agree; she was.


	8. All Consuming

Bella sat cross legged on the bed in her and Demetri's room and softly blew on the pages of a leather-bound book Aro had given her to turn them as she read through it. She wasn't stupid enough to touch the paper with her fingers at the moment. One thing she could say for Aro is that he absolutely did nothing halfway. That morning he had ambushed her as she retreated from the throne room after a meal to present her with a book he had compiled himself, as promised, of all he had learned of her life by poking around in the heads of the Cullens and Jacob. He also slid a portfolio on top that contained basic information on the members of the Volturi Coven. He told her to study.

"Learn, Bellezza," Aro had implored her with a lingering kiss to the back of her hand that made Demetri stiffen at her side. "These are your family now, and when you join my guard, you will need to know them as you know yourself."

Demetri had tilted his head at Aro and asked when, exactly, Bella had agreed to join the guard. Aro had smiled pleasantly but ignored him and excused himself to go off and do whatever it is he did all day. With blackened eyes and a clear state of annoyance, Demetri turned on the shower for her and kissed her head, telling her he was going to train. When she had finally drug herself from the warm water 30 minutes and 2 burst bottles of shampoo later, the shower handle was broken where she had attempted to ever-so-carefully turn the water off and he was nowhere to be found. She had chosen to ignore the still leaking showerhead and keep herself wrapped in her third towel, the only one still in one piece, rather than risk the destruction of the few pieces of clothing she would wear for any amount of time.

Her control when Demetri was around to relax her was actually quite good now. She wouldn't be handling glass anytime soon, but she could dress herself and occasionally turn doorknobs. Her control when he was out of her sight and she was consequently agitated, however, was not very impressive.

Demetri strolled into the room with his hands stuffed nonchalantly in his pockets and froze, his eyes running over her body in what appeared to be an unintentional motion. He swallowed and then grinned at her.

"Are there now no clothes in your entire closet to your liking, kouklitsa?"

Bella smiled back at him and shrugged. "You know how I am when you aren't around," she said. "I didn't want to rip anything."

His expression softened and he nodded. "Of course. It was inconsiderate of me not to be here when you finished."

Demetri crossed to her closet and pulled out a crimson, silk long-sleeved dress, laying it on the bed before her.

"Aro had me a bit out of sorts and I needed to let some aggression out. Still, I should not have left you for so long, Belloula," he murmured as he pulled underwear and a matching bralette from a drawer and lay them beside the dress. "Forgive me."

Demetri crossed to the other side of the room and although it seemed to almost pain him, he turned his back and waited for Bella to dress. She dropped her towel and carefully, calmed by his mere presence in the room, slid on the underwear.

"Metri," Bella sighed. "I know I can't keep you with me 24/7. I'll have to get used to it."

She murmured under her breath as she pulled the dress over her head. "Especially if you're going to forbid me from joining the guard..."

"What?" Came Demetri's sharp reply, his head half turned before Bella tapped him on the shoulder and stepped back to indicate he could face the room again. He quickly moved towards her and studied her. "What do you mean, 'forbid you'?"

Bella huffed and crossed her arms in frustration. "Look, I can understand why a male vampire wouldn't want his mate to join the guard," she said as diplomatically as she could manage. "I get it, okay? It's just... I really, I mean REALLY, don't like being told what to do. I wasn't sure why, but reading through that book over there, I get the feeling I spent a lot of time recently being told 'do this,' 'don't touch that,' 'wear this,' don't go there,' and I-"

Demetri interrupted her with a laugh and Bella gaped at him. This was a real, true insecurity, a real issue, and he was laughing at her? She turned to storm into the sitting room but Demetri grabbed her around the waist and nuzzled into her neck.

"Oh Principessa, don't be angry with me," he chuckled, his breath causing the fine hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. "I assure you I am not dismissing your concerns. You are simply adorable in your anger, like a ferocious puppy who has been startled."

Bella sputtered but he spun her around resting his forehead against hers and effectively curbing her ire as she became distracted by the proximity of his lips.

"I will forbid you nothing," Demetri told her seriously, holding her gaze in his own. "If you wish to join the guard, I shall endeavor to teach you all you must learn to be safe and effective. What angered me, Bambina, was Aro's assumption that you would join, without any conversation with you regarding your own feelings on the matter. You deserve a choice, kouklitsa. I'll not see it taken from you."

Bella beamed at him. She couldn't remember her past, it was true. But she had read through most of what Aro had provided and she knew enough to know that Demetri's trust, his determination to allow her to be her own person and not mold her or to shelter her from every single perceived threat; this was new for her.

Without thought, Bella crushed her lips to Demetri's and tangled her hands in the inky strands of his hair. He groaned, pulling her towards him seemingly thoughtlessly until the entire length of her body was pressed up against him. With one hand pressed to her lower back and the other cradling her neck, he stood up so that he supported her weight as one of her legs bent and the toes of her other foot barely brushed the floor.

The sensations that coursed through her body at his touch were both tantalizing and terrifying. Everywhere his fingers touched her skin, even through the fabric of her dress, she felt fire catch and the deeper he kissed her, the hotter it burned. He bit gently along her lower lip and with a whimper, she opened her mouth to him. His tongue moved out to caress hers and she tentatively met his own, overwhelmed and unsure but drunk on the pleasure that sizzled underneath her skin.

With a growl, Demetri yanked his head away and buried it in her shoulder. He was panting and shaking and obviously struggling deeply to retain a semblance of control.

Bella could feel him shudder slightly. "Belloula, we have not completed the mating bond yet and if we don't stop now..."

She could feel him hard and heavy against her thigh and she bit back a moan. His voice seemed to be forced from his throat as he continued. "The instincts are too strong, kouklitsa. If we continue, they'll take over and we won't stop until you are _mine_."

The last word came out with a husky reverence that left her squirming in his arms and made Demetri chuckle lightly. "If you keep rubbing up against me like that, kouklitsa, I might make the choice for you," he teased.

Bella tugged lightly on his hair until he met her gaze and she stared into his eyes, searching for something she wasn't even sure how to name. She could already feel her conscious thought slipping away, but she just needed to see-

There it was, clear as anything, bathed in the barely-there reds of his irises. Adoration, safety, and yearning were nestled in the depths of his stare and he was beautiful, so painfully and incredibly beautiful, with his pupils blown and his mouth slightly slack. She bit her lip and his eyes followed the motion, his breath hitching slightly as he studied the indentation her teeth made.

"Yes," she told him simply with a small smile. Then, knowing full well what it would do, she shook her head until her hair fell over her shoulders and tilted her head, exposing the bite mark he had brought her into this world with.

Bella felt his grip tighten, felt his chest rumble, and then his lips were on her, suckling the sensitive skin around the scar into his mouth until her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Demetri moved without hesitation towards the bed, cradling her to his chest as he ripped the comforter off and with it all of Aro's work, which settled in scattered pages onto the floor. He lay her down and brought his hands to the soles of her feet, rubbing and pushing his thumbs in until she was a lazy puddle of vampire before him.

When his hands stilled, Bella opened her eyes and refocused on the man before her. While he had pushed her to relax, she could see the way his body was tensed and shaking slightly as he subdued every instinct he had in order to make sure this was good for her.

That might have been the moment she fell in love with him.

Slowly, Demetri worked her hands up her legs, paying special attention to the soft skin behind her knees until his fingers brushed the outside of her silk panties and she felt herself tense slightly under his hand. Ignoring the way she stiffened, he brought his mouth back to hers and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her until she forgot how to be nervous and she only remembered where his fingers were when he pushed one gently inside her. He never let his lips leave hers as he coaxed her slowly with one gentle finger and his thumb into a slow, shuddering orgasm that left venom in her eyes.

She looked at her mate, with his black eyes and his shaking biceps and Bella reached between them to unbutton his trousers, but he pushed her hand away.

"You are untouched, Belloula," he murmured in a raw, husky voice as he tore away the rest of her clothes before she could protest and lowered his face between her legs. "One more, with my venom, so that any barrier you have will be broken before I am finally inside you."

This time, her orgasm was anything but slow and the pain when she came and his fingers broke though was almost immediately soothed by his tongue as he kept her balanced on the pinpoint of pleasure all the way through another one.

"You said one more," Bella gasped at him when he finally withdrew and moved with unsteady fingers to undress himself.

He smirked at her shakily as he settled himself to be cradled between her thighs. "My kouklitsa, my sweet Belloula, how could I ever stop bringing you pleasure once I've started?"

As if to prove his point, Demetri brought his hand back to her center as he gently pushed inside her and she tensed, pain and pleasure warring within her as his breathing increased in its raggedness and yet he held himself still.

Demetri had warned her that he would find it impossible to be gentle and slow, that her pheromones and his instinctual drive would override all the other senses and desires he may have to make this first time about her. But now as this thousand-year-old vampire overrode every single signal she knew his body had to be screaming at him to rut and pound and TAKE, she felt her feelings for him expand and overflow and she yanked him to her mouth to smother him with desperate, overwhelming kisses.

With a moan, Demetri began to carefully move and the sensation of him finally inside her, finally moving within her, sent a sense of pleasure and completion down her spine that was at once intoxicating and shocking.

"Don't hold back anymore, Metri," she whispered into his ear, pulling her lips away and nibbling the lobe in front of her. "You feel good, no more gentle. Don't hold back."

Demetri pulled back and met her eyes, looking and searching, but he didn't question her and it made her fall in love with him a little more.

With a growl, she watched him give in, watched his instincts take over, and it was sensuous and painfully enticing. His eyes never left hers as he finally took from her what she gave freely, his mouth parted slightly in pleasure and her hips struggling to meet his every thrust.

Finally, finally, he lowered his mouth to Bella's neck once more and his thrusts stuttered and he demanded, gravelly and hoarse, "Say it, kouklitsa. Tell me whose this makes you."

"Yours," she whispered and then his teeth were where they had been once before and he was biting and groaning in pleasure. She joined him in bliss as this time his venom forced her body to shudder in ecstasy instead of pain and she could almost feel all the pieces of her soul merge and run together with his.

Bella Swan was finally home.


	9. Blather

Demetri watched as his little mate crouched down into what she had been taught was a battle stance, brow furrowed in adorable concentration, and he waited for her to move to attack him. The courtyard was mostly empty, only himself and Felix joining Bella as she tried, unsuccessfully, to learn the most basic self-defense.

Bella charged, and while she was quick, Demetri was struck again by how much she resembled a puppy, though this time it was less to do with her anger and more to do with her bumbling movements. Biting back a chuckle, he sidestepped her fervent assault.

With a squeak, Bella attempted to slow herself from continuing on after he stepped away from her only to have her shield stall her momentum completely. Unlike when her shield had captured Felix, however, the watery shackles released her before she truly had her feet under her and as they retracted, she ungracefully whirled and landed hard on her bottom.

Felix moved to stand beside Demetri and shook his head. "I have literally never seen a clumsy vampire before," he said, voice filled with awe. "Seriously D, it's not even supposed to be possible. Have you honestly ever seen a vampire fall on their ass?"

Demetri turned and regarded his friend with a cool sort of dismissal before he moved forward and helped his Belloula to her feet. After taking his hand and allowing the gesture, she looked at him sheepishly through a curtain of her hair. He sighed, pushing the raven-colored locks back from her face and smoothing her silk dress back down along her hips.

"Ignore him, kouklista," Demetri told her with a slight quirk of his lips. "You are learning and Felix is still sore about your first sparring session."

She brushed his fingers away and pushed her hands to her hips with a huff. "How am I uncoordinated?" She demanded. "Everyone else walks around here like they're floating and I'm still occasionally tripping over nothing whatsoever."

Demetri pressed his lips together to stifle his smirk, unsure what to say. It was true that his mate was quite possibly the single most graceless vampire he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. But where he found her occasional stumbling and inability to master combat begrudgingly endearing, Bella seemed to take it as a personal affront that her most basic ability was far below the norm. He decided honesty, if gentle honesty, was almost always best, and even more so when addressing one's partner.

"I am unsure why, precisely, you continue to find yourself troubled by the very air on the occasion that you try to move with purpose, Psychi Mou," he answered dryly, wrapping an arm around her waist so she couldn't storm off in irritation before he finished. "But I imagine most of these graceful creatures you seem to think walk as if floating would happily embrace a bit of clumsiness if they could have only a taste of what you can accomplish tactically with your translucent bodyguard."

Bella's body untensed slightly, and with a sigh she allowed herself to lean into Demetri's side. He took a deep breath of the tantalizing scent of his mate before he pressed a kiss to her temple and released her. "In fact, perhaps we should focus our work for today on the control of your shield and leave the combat to next time for the moment."

Now it was Felix's turn to sigh. After Bella's shield had first appeared, it had been fascinating to watch how it manifested itself during training exercises. For one, no matter how Demetri approached her, it never moved to protect her against him. Even when he had moved with as much aggression as he could muster in an attempt to force her shield to come out and play with him, it remained stubbornly away.

Anyone else, however, need only flinch in her direction under a circumstance where combat was being practiced and they found themselves restrained in increasingly creative and bizarre ways. Afton, after he had volunteered to help one day, found himself lifted upside down and hanging from something that resembled a tentacle. The tentacle had been attached to nothing but air and he had fervently declared he meant Bella no harm directly before he was released unceremoniously to crumble head first to the floor.

Afton did not volunteer again.

No one was keen to go up against a shied that seemed to have a mind completely of it's own and the mentality of a small child when it came to how it restrained others. It was even capable of restraining whole groups of people if the instance where Marcus, Felix, Aro, and Santiago had moved forward as one as a test and found themselves frozen all together as if in a giant block of jello was any indication. That one had been particularly tricky because the shield had thickened such that it was impossible for the captives to speak, and it seemed reluctant to release enough of their heads to allow even one to affirm that he meant no harm. It had taken Bella nearly an hour of coaxing the wayward defense mechanism into some sort of compromise where it would allow for the heads of the men only to become unencased. Aro had crowed delightedly at the display while Marcus smiled one of his small enigmatic smiles and Felix and Santiago escaped to drink bourbon and complain about the bambina whilst they licked the scratches to their wounded pride.

Bella's shield, Marcus and Demetri had posited, was based somewhere in her subconscious and seemed to sense danger on an instinctual level that her conscious brain could not reason with. Furthermore, it almost seemed to resent training and the implication that it needed to practice, and therefore it insisted on taunting anyone who dared to attack Bella even under auspicious of helping her to improve her skills. Demetri, whose walls were lined with knowledge and books, was fascinated by this new and entirely unpredictable gift. If he was being honest with himself, he was even a little charmed by this wild, cocky, and completely unruly little piece of his kouklitsa.

Which is why now, with Felix grumbling as he moved into a crouch across from Bella, it was understood between the two friends that Felix would take the hits that her shield would undoubtedly deal to him in the name of loyalty to his best friend, because no one else in Volterra was going to. Despite how part of Demetri was loathe to tame this piece of his Belloula, he was also aware that her lack of control bothered her. She needed to learn to work with her shield, rather than allowing it to operate as an autonomous piece of herself with its own rules, specifically if all other forms of combat were likely to remain beyond her grasp. Demetri doubted her coordination was going to improve with time.

"Calm your mind, Belloula," Demetri coaxed her as she stood stock-still across from Felix, a grim expression on her face. "Felix is going to attack, but only by moving forward. Instead of using your shield, I want you to step slightly to the side and allow him to move past you. Concentrate on speaking within yourself, telling your shield that it is not needed for this battle and that all you need do to defend yourself is step to the side."

She closed her eyes and Demetri could see she was speaking in her mind, although as far as he knew, her shield had yet to answer her. He wasn't even sure it was sentient enough to verbalize, but he knew it was sentient enough to understand her, as the only way it released its captives was after they confirmed verbally they were not a threat to Bella. Part of him wondered in a real combat situation if the shield could be tricked by an enemy, or if it would be intelligent enough on its own to realize any enemy was lying regarding their intentions. He made a note to test that possibility out later that week.

Bella's eyes fluttered open and she nodded to Felix, who grumbled but shook his shoulders out and began moving towards her. He charged, and just as he was close enough that Bella had begun to slide to the left, a lasso of greenish-blue liquid extended from somewhere near where he started and wrapped around his ankle, bringing him crashing to the ground.

In an exaggerated slow motion that mimicked the act of someone pulling, pausing, and pulling again, the lasso wrenched Felix backward. Felix was heaved across the courtyard by his ankle until he lay fuming on the ground exactly where he started. Demetri struggled not to grin at the display while Bella appeared to not even try to fight her amusement as she collapsed to her knees in a fit of delicious sounding giggles.

Demetri strolled casually towards the lumbering vampire sprawled on the courtyard stone as Felix flipped onto his back and waited with murderous fury in his eyes for Bella to finish laughing and coax her shield to release him.

"You have to admit, the thing has a sense of humor," Demetri told him seriously.

"Shut the fuck up, D."

Bella had retreated to their rooms soon after that, begging Demetri not to make her do anymore after her shield had managed to ignore her and ensnare Felix for the 6th time. Felix hadn't even bothered to excuse himself, just glared at Demetri before storming off to presumably find someone to complain to. Left to his own devices, Demetri had taken the offered solitude to meditate, a technique he that had found along with many other warriors allowed him to hone and refine his already impressive skills.

His quiet was interrupted by the arrival of a copper-haired, annoyed-looking vampire. Demetri had cracked an eye at the intruder, then assumed the child intended to learn some sort of combat skill in the courtyard and so ignored him in favor of returning to his meditation. It wasn't until Edward Cullen's footfalls had brought the vampire to stand directly in front of Demetri and the boy had cleared his throat that Demetri bothered to look up at him.

He quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at the Cullen and waited.

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed before he looked back down at the vampire before him. "We need to talk," he grit out, the words appearing the physically pain him.

Demetri's other eyebrow rose as he moved to stand, brushing off his trousers. "I cannot imagine what you and I possibly have to speak about, Cullen," he responded smoothly. "But please, do enlighten me."

Edward eyed the man in front of him, took a deep breath and opened his mouth. Nothing seemed to come out and he tried again before he finally gave up and started pacing.

Demetri watched the other vampire, nonplussed by the whole event. This conversation, or current lack of one, was a bit like a fly buzzing about but staying determinedly across the room. Annoying, but not quite obnoxious enough for one to bother with actually killing the insect.

"I love her," Edward blurted out, stopping to stare at Demetri with a mix of resentment and despair.

"Yes," Demetri affirmed. "I am aware."

"You don't- You don't even know her!" Edward spat, anger obviously catching up to him as he threw his hands in the air. "I had her, and she was beautiful and fragile and innocent and I left it all so that she could live a good, pure life, one she was worthy of, and you- You ruined her!"

Demetri tilted his head to the side as his lips thinned slightly. "Explain to me, Cullen, what exactly you mean by 'ruined.'"

Edward stepped forward, pressing his face near Demetri's, seemingly oblivious to the way the other man's eyes had steadily darkened. "You made her into a soulless monster! You think you have some sort of disgusting, vampiric claim on her and now you've told her the same and in her naivete, you've forced her to believe it. You've trapped her, enslaved her, stolen her very innocence and filled her head with lies and deceit about who she is and who those who love her are and you've turned her against us!"

Edward grabbed the front of Demetri's shirt, shaking the other man slightly as Demetri continued to watch him rage impassively. "She belongs to the human world, you bastard!" He snarled. "I made a mistake, but I would have gone back; she called to me, _screamed_ to me, even across oceans. I would have gone back and watched her grow and age and we'd have passed a beautiful, fragile life together until she left this earth and I would follow her to the afterlife! I'd have crawled my way out of hell just to find her in heaven, I swear it. She was made to be a Cullen, Bella Cullen, the one human member of a vampiric coven and my wife and I would have had her, would have gotten her back if it wasn't for you and your moronic mati-"

Demetri silently dislodged Edward's hands and twisted the man around, pulling Edward's wrists to his back as he turned the other vampire to face away from him. With Edward's back to his chest, he brought his free hand up to grip Edward's neck and tightened his grip, slowly squeezing the younger vampire's windpipe as he forced him to his knees. Edward kneeled at his feet facing the courtyard, his wrists wrenched up between his shoulder blades and his neck gripped precariously in Demetri's palm. One movement is all it would take to cleanly separate Edward's head from his shoulders, and knowing this, the man began to shake slightly in fear.

"You know, Cullen," Demetri told him conversationally, "it was my intention to simply allow you to remain in Volterra and sulk about your misfortunes. See, you aren't important, Edward. Not at all. Not to me, and not to my mate. You are simply a very small and very insignificant footnote in a past that frankly, Belloula doesn't remember nor after learning about, seem all that proud of."

Demetri paused and pulled ever so slightly on Edward's neck, causing the skin to crack and a slight whining sound to emerge from the boy's throat. "It seems, however, that you do not understand much of anything about vampires and that's unfortunate really, because if you did, I suspect you would not find yourself in the precarious and potentially fatal situation you are currently ensnared in. Your coven leader has failed you. Allow me to enlighten you."

"Mates are sacred," Demetri continued as if he were discussing a painting or commenting on the architecture. "Especially true mates; really, those are unbreakable. You don't fuck with mates, Cullen. More importantly and relevant for you, you don't fuck with _my_ mate. I cannot say what Belloula was like as a human, and frankly, I have very little interest in that. Personally, I think your plan to condemn a human woman to a life with a predator (who she, as a result of her species, could never match in strength, speed, or intelligence) is at best cruel, but how you choose to run your love life is really none of my concern. That's because your love life does not in any way, shape, or form have anything to do with my mate."

Demetri twisted Edward's neck a bit more, allowing the skin to crack further and the boy below him to struggle slightly as panic set in. "Shhhh," Demetri shushed him. "We're almost done here."

"All these things you've said, Cullen," Demetri shook his head and tsked. "They are very upsetting. That my perfect mate is 'ruined?' That she is anything less than everything good and right in this world? These are the sorts of things that she will never hear. She will never know that someone would suggest that the state of her soul is anything less than pristine nor that you have insulted her intelligence by suggesting I could somehow deceive her into believing we are something other than what we are. She will have no opportunity to hear these things, in fact, because you will stay so far away from her that your presence will not even be registered in her beautiful brain. You will not speak to her, you will not look at her, I would highly suggest you not think of her either, just to be safe."

Edward screamed as Demetri used the forgotten grip he had on Edward's wrists to wrench his hands from his body. Pushing Edward forward onto the stumps that were left, Demetri rolled the man over with his foot and tossed him the left one.

"Remember, Cullen, just how easy this was for me."

Demetri stared down at him as Edward writhed and scooted away from him, his face emotionless. "I'm not a particularly good man. There are very few things that a person can do to upset me, but insulting my mate appears to be one of them. I'd tell you what would happen next time we have a conversation like this, but there won't be the next time, will there?"

Demetri eyed the hand he was holding delicately with a slightly wrinkled nose. "You'll have to see Carlisle to get this back, I think. I want to make sure the man understands just how desperately your education is lacking."

With a slight incline of his head, Demetri turned his back on the vampire still rolling in agony at his feet and went to seek out the head of the Cullen Coven.


	10. Plans

Demetri exited the courtyard with Edward Cullen's hand twitching erratically in his grip. He eyed the limb disdainfully and closed his eyes for a moment, focusing to find the exact location of the elder Cullen within the castle. With a frown, he determined that Carlisle was in the throne room before he strode in that direction.

"D! I was looking for you," Felix greeted him with a nod as he emerged from a corridor in front of Demetri. The larger vampire fell into step beside him. "Meeting in the throne room, the whole upper guard was called..."

Felix trailed off as he spotted what Demetri carried and he raised an eyebrow. "Who the fuck's hand do you have?"

A small smirk graced Demetri's features. "Edward Cullen's."

Felix was still laughing when the pair entered the throne room. His laughter only increased when Demetri extended the hand wordlessly to the Cullen Coven leader, Carlisle's eyes widening impossibly as he clearly sought to discern who the hand belonged to.

Marcus sighed but shook his head indulgently.

"Demetri, whose hand have you taken custody of?" he asked politely.

Demetri nodded lightly to the king in acknowledgment.

"The younger Cullen," he answered, stepping backwards in Felix's direction. "Unfortunately, he had rather a lot of ignorance to exorcise regarding mating and the morality of our species. He chose a confidante poorly."

Alice sputtered somewhere in the corner of the room but whatever Jasper said to her made her keep her silence as she stared daggers at Demetri.

Aro released a long-suffering sigh. "You are aware Edward Cullen is a member of my guard, yes? I hardly need you all at each other's throats, as it were."

"Master, the boy picked a poor teacher for his lessons," Demetri answered with a non-committal shrug, moving to lounge against the wall with crossed arms. "I suggested Carlisle, in the future."

Aro closed his eyes, breathing deeply as his teeth grit together. The small grin on Marcus's face was not lost on Demetri, who simply looked back. "Fine," Aro snapped. "Where did you leave the unfortunate child?"

After Carlisle was dispatched to tend to him, Aro seemed to take a moment to collect himself before turning to the crowd. "Now that we have resolved personal quarrels to your satisfaction," he started with an annoyed look at Demetri that was summarily ignored, "Perhaps we can move on to why you have been brought here."

Aro stood and cast a glance around the room, extending his arms outward as he smiled viciously. "Dear Ones, the Romanians have decided, at last, to make their move. As we speak an army of-"

He paused and glanced towards Alice Cullen. "How many did you say, dear?"

"Eighty, give or take a few" Alice answered.

"An army eighty strong," Aro continued, pacing in front of the throne with characteristic gravitas, "consisting of both newborns and some of our very oldest acquaintances, moves towards Volterra with the express purpose of revenge and retrieving some long-lost glory."

Aro sighed with mock sadness, his eyes glinting manically as he retook his seat. "It is so sad to see such old friends demand their own demise," he said as his face spread into a wicked smile.

Cauis' eyes gleamed with manic delight as he smiled. "Indeed, Brother."

Aro's eyes scanned the room. "Felix, come forward."

Felix stepped to the middle of the room, giving the brothers a half bow before he stood impassively at attention.

"How many are battle-ready on the lower guard, Felix?"

Felix tilted his head and considered. "Master, I would say we have approximately 45 lower guard battle-ready. With the addition of the upper guard who are utilized for fighting, including the newest Cullens and exempting personal guards, we stand at around 65 strong."

Cauis smirked. "And once we add the Kings?" He asked. "Surely you would not think we would stay in our pretty little abode when our only real threat beats at the doors?"

Felix's eyes widened but he did not show his surprise otherwise. "The addition of the kings and your personal guard would bring us to seventy or so, Master."

"And none of our guards are newborns," Felix added firmly with a side glance to Demetri that went unnoticed by no one. A slight inclination of Marcus's head answered the question that had been plaguing Demetri since the beginning of this discussion. Aro would not try to force Bella to fight, at least not yet.

Aro tutted. "But, of course, it would not do to leave our family unprotected."

He paused as he scanned the room. "Afton, you will stay with your mate as security for the family. Santiago, you too shall stay, along with of course Chelsea, Corin, Bella, and Heidi. I would like all of the ladies in pairs at all times, just in case someone were to see our absence as an opportunity to harm the Volturi through our mates or our coven mates."

"I will join Corin with the Queens in their tower," Chelsea offered. Afton nodded.

Heidi glanced at Santiago before she spoke up. "We shall stay with Bella, Master."

Aro smiled widely at the assembled group. "Very good, dear ones," he cooed. "Now, I will give you today to prepare. Alice, darling, stay behind so that we may discuss where it would be best to ambush this approaching threat. Bring your mate along, surely the Major's knowledge of the Southern Wars would be a boon here. Meet here tonight at sunset."

Everyone dispersed, Felix to presumably bring the lower guard up to speed, and Demetri walked slowly towards his chambers. His mate was still a newborn, and while he was not sure how exactly this information was going to be received, he could not imagine this was in any way going to make for a pleasant conversation.

* * *

"No," Bella told him firmly, her chin jutting out as she crossed her arms and stared him down in what he imagined she believed was a fierce expression.

Demetri's mouth twitched up slightly as he moved to cross to where she stood by the window. "Belloula..."

"No, Metri," she scowled, pointing a finger at his chest as if she could wound him with it across the room. "You will not leave me here all by myself in this little castle while you go play soldier. I can't even put my clothes on without you! Am I supposed to be naked the entire time you're gone? Is that what you want?"

Demetri placed his hands in his pockets and sighed, simply eying her while she ranted as he attempted not to chuckle aloud. He suspected that would do nothing to dim her ire.

"Oh, you think that's funny, do you?" She asked with a dangerous little gleam in her eye. "You said Santiago and Heidi were going to be my escorts, so I assume that means you WANT Santiago to see me without clothes."

He tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "I wonder, kouklitsa, what Santiago has done to offend you so deeply that you wish to ensure his untimely demise."

Bella waved a hand dismissively at him as she started pacing in front of the window. "It certainly wouldn't be his fault, would it?" she muttered. "I can't do anything without you here. I can barely stand a few hours away from you; how on earth am I going to make it days?"

She paused and bit her lip for a minute before she turned to him cautiously, her eyes wide and her hands twisting.

"Metri," she started, before taking a deep unnecessary breath and a small step backwards. "Oh God, Metri, is this normal?"

His kouklista let out a panicked squeak as she took another step backwards and Demetri came to the swift realization that she was working herself into a panic.

"Oh no, this is like the clumsy thing, isn't it?! I'm some sort of weird, needy vampire who can't go five minutes without attention from her mate. Oh God, OF COURSE you'd get a broken vampire to mate with, OF COURSE I'd be wrong-"

Demetri cut her off with a scorching kiss, grabbing her arms and pulling her roughly against his chest. He bit her lip sharply, a small punishment for saying loathsome things about herself, as he pushed his way into her mouth and pulled her gently towards a bookshelf.

Backing her up until she was pressed fully between him and the spines of his books, Demetri lifted his mate by her thighs, forcing her to counterbalance by wrapping her long, lithe legs around his narrow waist.

"You will stop this completely inaccurate ranting, principessa," he told her firmly as he nipped at her collarbone. Her whimper at the sting of his sharp teeth made him smile, but he continued. "I will not tolerate anyone insulting my mate, including you."

Demetri brought his hands up to cradle her face, using the pressure of his hips to hold her upright as he demanded her gaze meet his. "You are still my bambina, Belloula. You will stomp your pretty little foot and demand my time and my attention and I will patiently acquiesce because that is what a sire, and especially a mate, does with their bambina. That is the very definition of normal. It is also normal that you will struggle to be away from me for the days required for me to eliminate this threat along with the rest of the guard-"

Bella opened her mouth to cut him off, eyes flashing, but Demetri swiftly covered her mouth with his hand.

He narrowed his eyes at her and waited until she relaxed in his arms once more. "You will struggle, kouklitsa," Demetri continued, "but you are old enough to bear it. I would not ask this of you, Belloula, for anything but a very real threat to our security and our life here, but alas, that threat has come. I will protect you and what is ours, little mate, even at the price of your comfort."

Bella's eyes flashed again and she nipped the skin of his palm, causing him to curse and release his hold. He shifted backwards as he eyed his hand with a look of annoyance, and Bella took advantage of his distraction to reverse their positions.

Demetri let out a surprised sound as she pressed him into the bookcase with the full length of her petite body, glaring up at him defiantly as her hands pushed a little harshly on his chest.

"Fine," she growled at him, pouting out her lower lip. "But I don't want you to go. And I don't like it."

He released his own hand and smiled down at her, wrapping his arms loosely around her waist. "I expected no different, bambina."

Bella made a frustrated sound then stood of her toes to nip at his neck and chin, causing his eyes to darken as he brought one hand up to squeeze the back of her neck. In a fit of pique, his kouklitsa wrenched his hands from her person and pushed them back to the bookshelf.

His eyes narrowed and just as he made the decision that this rebellious behavior was leaving the realm of cute and moving into unacceptable, Bella shocked him into stillness by kneeling in front of him.

Demetri swallowed and eyed his little mate at his feet. He could feel his already half-hard length swelling painfully at the picture she had created for him.

"What are you doing down there, Belloula?" He murmured softly as she looked up at him and bit her lip.

Bella quickly shifted her eyes to her hands in her lap and he could tell were she still human, she would be blushing.

"I think my emotions MAY have gotten away with me," she whispered with a nervous glance up at him. "I was feeling aggravated and I wanted to, I don't know, show that I have power too, you know? But now that I'm here, I remembered that I don't actually know what I'm doing..."

"You don't have to do anything, kouklista," he told her, even though it physically pained him, in a very literal sense, to do so.

"Okay," his Belloula answered with a quiet nod. Demetri went to pull her off the floor, to hopefully move her to the bed and show her just how much power she actually did have over him, but he found himself slammed back to the bookshelf with her hands on his thighs.

She met his eyes with a mix of nervousness and determination.

"Don't move," she said firmly.

"I can do that," he told her with a short nod as her small fingers worked the button to his trousers open and she unzipped him slowly.

Demetri watched with hooded eyes as she pushed the fabric down his thighs, smoothing her hands back up the exposed skin of his legs before she tentatively took him in her hands. Her soft touches and tentative stroking was maddening and Demetri found himself helplessly thrusting his hips forward in a bid for more contact.

"Metri, like this?" His little mate asked before she tentatively licked up the length of him, little flicks of her tongue from base to tip as his brain short-circuited and he nearly forgot that breathing was not necessary for vampires.

There was no holding back his primal growl when finally she took the tip of him into her mouth and sucked, and this seemed to please her as she smiled around his girth and stroked him with her tongue.

As Demetri's many names for her dripped from his tongue, each 'Belloula' brought him the pleasure of his mate's cheeks hollowing around him and each 'Kouklitsa' the delight of her swirling her tongue around his head.

Without Demetri's permission, his hands tangled into her dark locks and he was thrusting with her movements against her tongue, the hot vice of her throat pulling him into an unfathomable bliss. She hummed her pleasure at his loss of control and that vibration is what did him in. He spilled into her waiting mouth, growling with approval as she swallowed around him, taking in his venom and prolonging his high.

After he had scooped his Belloula from the floor and returned the favor of orgasm to his little mate, thrice, he pulled her nude, sated body to rest against his and murmured against her temple.

"It will all be alright, my kouklitsa."

Demetri nuzzled against his mark on her neck, kissing it softly as she sighed in contentment against him.

"I promise."


	11. Invasion

This was decidedly not alright. In fact, she thought in a panic as she glanced around the throne room, this was the opposite of alright.

Bella stood against a wall to the left of the thrones with one of Heidi's hands clutched in her own, eyes flicking rapidly around the room between the different vampires whose coven she had joined not long ago. Santiago was in pieces, his limbs stacked in a sort of haphazard pattern near the doors with his head planted on top. Afton's teeth were gritted as he leaned against Chelsea who was cradling his upper body against her chest. His head was slowly re-attaching back to his body but without the aid of fresh blood, the process was agonizingly slow. Chelsea was finally silent with her head bowed over her mate's form, her wailing quieted when at last she had agreed to the whims of her captors in exchange for Afton's safety. With her submission, the bonds that held the Volturi artificially together had snapped. Bella wondered just how many guards would actually be returning, how many were actually loyal, but she set that thought aside. There were much bigger, much nastier concerns at the moment.

The Queens, Sulpicia and Athendora, hugged each other tightly as they stood in a quiet corner of the room, seeming to shrink in on themselves as much as possible. Corin stood in front of them with wary eyes, following the movements of every vampire in the room as if she could somehow protect them despite all evidence to the contrary. Alice and Carlisle Cullen whispered to themselves behind the thrones. 20 or so soldiers milled about the open space, some leering at the Volturi coven while others ignored them completely. The vampire pacing in front of the dais growled loudly and Bella's gaze quickly flipped to study him.

There hadn't been much information on the Romanians in her files from Aro, but there was enough that when Heidi had hissed out that Vladimir and Stefan had come to Volterra, Bella had known that she was looking at the previous rulers of the vampire race. They oozed the same formal competence that Demetri did and had easily overpowered the very few vampires at the castle when strolled through the doors.

Alice was a dirty liar, that much was clear. Oh, there certainly was a Romanian army, but that army was HERE, not in some clearing halfway between Italy and Romania. And worse, it was obvious Alice had helped plan this coup, if the way she and Vladimir greeted each other with air kisses and smiles was any indication. Santiago was the only one who tried to fight, his temper obviously getting the better of him before his common sense kicked in, and the best thing Bella could say about that was that at least they hadn't burned him. Yet.

The pacing vampire had a general sense of agitation, his ashy blond hair whipping around his head as he moved angrily and murmured to himself. In contrast, his brother sat behind him on one of the thrones, his feet propped up on a different one he had turned on its side. He looked utterly relaxed at he watched his coven mate work himself into a rage behind a curtain of his dark brunette hair.

"Peace, Vlad," the seated man said smugly. "Take a moment to savor our victory. This is not the first time we have attempted to wrest our power back but finally, FINALLY we have the upper hand."

Vladimir turned to his brother sharply, waving an angry dismissive hand. "They still have the Witch Twins, Stefan, the Captain of their guard, and that fucking tracker. All our hard-won progress could be snatched from us in a moment if we do not play this exactly right."

"Ah, but brother," Stefan drawled with a smirk, "we have all the leverage." He fixed his eyes first on the Queens, who seemed to shrink back into the wall to the best of their ability, then to Chelsea who still had eyes only for Afton.

"How loyal do you think the lower guard is without dear Chelsea tying everyone to the Kings, hmmmm?" Stefan continued confidently. His eyes hardened and he glanced at the queens again. "And in the end, you know what a vampire would do for their mate."

Bella knew from reading the files that Vladimir and Stefan had lost their mates to the war with the Volturi and she swallowed hard to think of how disdainfully Stefan was eying the mates of the kings. Neither Romanian had paid her any attention at all and she was fairly confident they didn't know she was the mate of a high-ranking guard. Despite the fact that she was starving, having not been fed recently as they seemed unaware she was a newborn, Bella had been trying very hard not to draw any attention to herself. So far they had seen her but dismissed her to be dealt with later. That was just fine with her. The less they knew about her and what she could do, the better.

Vladimir sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, but he nodded in what appeared to be acknowledgment of the truth of Stefan's words.

He turned to Alice. "How long until they return to the castle?"

Alice paused, her eyes unfocusing slightly as she searched the future. "12 hours, at most. They've arrived at the clearing and they know something is wrong."

Bella didn't stop the sigh of relief that whooshed out of her in time. Demetri would be back to her in 12 hours and with any luck, the Volturi would find a way to save them. The Italians had won before; they could do it again.

Heidi squeezed her hand tightly in warning but the damage was done as Stefan had fixed her with an amused expression while Vladimir continued to ask Alice questions about the Volturi's return. Bella shrank back as Stefan's gaze ran over her features, his eyebrows knitting together slightly as he swung his legs down and rose to stand. Alice paused, her face taking on an alarmed countenance before she quickly resumed talking. Stefan shushed her and looked at his brother.

"Vlad, who do you suppose this newest member of Volturi is?"

Vladimir turned abruptly from Alice, his eyes narrowed as he scanned where his brother indicated quickly before his gaze landed on Bella. His eyebrows rose slightly. "Do you see the circles under her eyes? Either she has not fed in a very long time before we arrived..."

"Or she's a newborn," Stefan finished for him, stepping closer to Bella as he grinned at her.

Vladimir didn't move towards her, simply frowning. "Alice, why have we not learned of a new member?"

Alice cleared her throat unnecessarily. "She's not part of the bargain, Vladimir. She's not Volturi; she's Cullen."

Stefan laughed, standing in front of Heidi now and looking down at the woman with a smirk as she put herself between himself and Bella. "Why, I wonder, would the Bait be so intent to shield her if she was just a Cullen?" He mused. "Why does this young one stand so far from you then, Seer?"

Bella's newborn instincts were going wild, but she tried to breathe deeply and control her rising panic and hostility. There were so many Romanian soldiers, even had she been Felix or Demetri, she would not have stood a chance against all these vampires. Worse, she did not need these people knowing about her shield. She knew from Demetri it was one of a kind, and she could only imagine what the Romanians might do to possess it. Bella pressed her teeth together hard to keep from snarling a warning as Stefan locked eyes with her over Heidi's shoulder.

Stefan grinned. "So little one, the question becomes; are you 'talent'... or 'mate'?"

In one swift movement, Stefan had Heidi thrown to the side and his hand was moving towards Bella's face. No self-control was going to contain her now.

So quickly even vampire eyes had trouble following, Bella was entirely covered in her translucent shield. A claw extended from her chest and wrapped itself around Stefan's neck, pushing him away from her body and upwards until his feet were no longer touching the ground.

Some of the soldiers responded immediately to the threat, moving towards Bella as soon as they realized what was happening, but every soldier who had made an aggressive move in the room found their feet suddenly encased in the same watery shackles Felix had grown so familiar with.

Vladimir's eyes narrowed considerably but Stefan's smile was wide even as he wheezed in his effort to speak from the pressure on his throat. "Talent then," he gasped out, his hands gripping the claw around his neck in an attempt to alleviate the pressure. Vampires did not need to breathe, but that did not make choking pleasant.

"Release him!" Vladimir growled, very pointedly not moving at all even as he demanded his brother be returned to the floor.

Bella swallowed hard, closing her eyes tightly and trying to reach out to her shield to beg it to let Stefan down. Now they knew she had it, she did not need to add them finding out it was sentient to boot.

'You need to let the asshole down,' she thought to her other, silent self desperately. 'He won't attack now; we're safe. Let him down and go away for now.'

She cracked an eye open to see that absolutely nothing had changed and growled in frustration.

'You're going to get us killed or abducted or something equally unpleasant!' She screeched in the privacy of her mind. 'Go. Away.'

When Bella opened her eyes once more, she cried out involuntarily at the scene in front of her. One of the guards had secured Heidi while her eyes were closed and had his teeth at her neck, ready to remove her head. Vladimir's hand was extended, clearly ready to give the signal to dismember, while he looked at Bella with cold fury and a single raised eyebrow.

"Last chance," he warned her through gritted teeth.

God, why couldn't her shield be bothered to protect her friends? She still had no idea why the hell it did what it did and there were only very few ways she had even figured out how to work with it.

Bella felt her shoulders slump in defeat. "I can't control it," she admitted, flinching away from thoughts of what they were going to do to her. "It decides when to let people loose. You have to say out loud that you aren't going to hurt me, and mean it, and it should let everyone go."

Vladimir snapped his teeth, clearly ready to retort nastily, but Stefan cut him off with a wheeze.

"I will let no harm come to this little one," he whispered with a smirk. The smirk widened into a grin when the claw at his neck dropped him and he landed agilely on his feet.

Stefan walked to his brother and placed his hand on Vladimir's shoulder, giving him a meaningful look. Vladimir's lips thinned and he gnashed his teeth, but finally he relented with a grunt, shoving his brother's hand off as he shot a dirty look at the still shield-encased Bella and resumed pacing.

Stefan looked at her and tilted his head. "I meant what I said about allowing no harm to come to you," he told her. "None of our army will harm you without our signal, and we will not give it unless you attempt to attack us."

Bella could feel her shield react to his words, folding in on itself and retracting backwards until finally it was gone altogether. Silently, Bella fumed. Oh, SHE told it to go away and nothing happens. The invader says that everything is peachy and it obeys. How lovely.

Stefan strolled towards her, a wicked grin on his face as he backed her up to the wall. He reached a single finger out slowly, and ran it down her cheek, laughing when her instincts got the better of her and she snapped at his hand. "Well, Little One, you don't like me much, but I think your shield does."

His eyes dropped to the mark on her neck and his grin widened. "I thought I saw a bite before your shield tried to remove my head. Who on earth is your mate?"

Bella pressed her lips together and glared at the Romanian, but he just laughed at her. "Feisty thing, aren't you? I don't need you to tell me anything. You are a newborn, but I am very, very old, and my senses are impeccable."

Stefan pointed towards Heidi, where she still stood miserably with a vampire's teeth at her neck. "Now little one, remember that I am not going to hurt you, but I make no such promises for the Bait, hmmm? Stay still and do not let your teeth get away from you, or I will burn her."

Bella looked at her friend, helpless in the arms on a heartless enemy and grit her teeth for whatever he was warning her about. Slowly, Stefan lowered his head until he was close to her neck, and every single newborn instinct in her screamed at her to fight him off and get her neck away from him. Apparently, her shield agreed because although it didn't push him away, eventually it appeared around her throat like armor, encasing her neck completely in a translucent barrier.

Stefan huffed out a laugh and stepped back. "No matter, little shield. I got what I needed. You SMELL like him."

Bella felt her heart drop through her stomach and unconsciously her eyes flicked over to the queens before they returned to Stefan.

He smiled at her menacingly. "Vlad, this one belongs to the Tracker."


	12. Mates

Vampires were well accustomed to rage. The primal brutality of vampiric nature heightened certain emotions and wrath was one of them. But nothing, no moment in Demetri's over one thousand years of existence, prepared him for the white-hot fury that raced through his veins when he realized the betrayal of Alice Cullen. That betrayal directly impacted the safety of his mate and that was simply unacceptable.

The fire that consumed him at his realization was matched by the kings, as they too had mates in probable danger, but none were prepared for the devastation wreaked by the emotions of the Southern Major there in that clearing. If there had been any doubt that Jasper Hale was not made aware of his wife's scheming, he laid it to rest when he inadvertently laid down half the guard with an uncontrolled burst of temper, sorrow, and indignation.

As the Kings roared to turn back, go back, and the Volturi tore back towards the castle, Demetri made no attempt to stop studying Edward. He found himself contemplating the many ways that fire could be applied to a person and slowly burn them from the inside out without completing the job too quickly. The boy showed no indication that he knew of Alice's deception and when Jasper had lifted him in the air by his throat and demanded the truth, Cullen swore he knew nothing. Whatever the Major tasted on his emotions must have convinced him of Edward's sincerity, causing the older vampire to drop him back to his feet and leave him to his own devices while Jasper ranted and brooded. Demetri, however, did not care whether he knew about this piece of the game or not; everything that was happening landed firmly at the Cullen Coven's feet. The fucker should have just left when Bella and he mated, accepted his loss. It was the only thing to do when your companion found their mate. You gracefully stepped aside because certain things were simply inevitable and it would only cause pain to everyone involved to pretend that they weren't. Instead he stayed around like an illness and attempted to create discord for Demetri and his kouklitsa. None of what was happening now would have come to pass without the boy's stubborn refusal to accept his defeat.

Demetri's wrists twitched with the impulse to rend Edward's flesh from his bones, at a minimum because Alice's unappealing little body was out of reach at the moment, but he temporarily desisted. His demeanor remained outwardly cool as they ran through the forest, chasing the dawn that would soon force them to slow as they ran through more populated areas. Internally though, he remained aflame.

No one knew what was happening back at the castle. Were the Romanians even involved, or was this all some sort of elaborate plan to remove threats from the vicinity of the little Pixie while she brought whatever schemes she had to fruition? The bitch had a reason for all this and whatever it was left his little mate square in the middle of her plans.

That was a fatal miscalculation on her part.

Every Cullen head he could find was going to be stacked one by one on a pike and buried so deep in the ocean that no light would ever find their undead, blinking eyes. Demetri did not even particularly care that some of the Cullen's weren't in Volterra. He was THE tracker and no one could hide from him once he decided to find them. If any vampire bore the Cullen name, they were guilty as far as he was concerned. Death would be the least of their worries until the entire threat was decimated. And make no mistake, the Cullen's had proven with this stunt they were in fact a threat. It would not be tolerated.

Felix caught up to him just as the sun broke the horizon and they passed from Yugoslavia into the brief stretch they'd run through Bosnia. After that it was a plane trip over the water to Italy. Flying would be more expedient than swimming. Truly, flying was faster than running as well but they only had connections so many places and even under duress, the Volturi could not break their own laws and risk exposure to humans. A group of seventy extremely pale, inhumanly beautiful men and women demanding a plane together was a bit too much to expect humans to ignore in a place where they did not have a private airport awaiting their whims.

Unnecessarily clearing his throat, Felix flicked a glance at Demetri out of the corner of his eye. "Any theories, D?"

Demetri glanced at his friend with a cold calculating expression that had a shiver running down the other vampire's back. "A few," he answered noncommittally.

"Come on, share the knowledge," the large man groused. "I need to make a plan for the guard on how to approach the castle and we have no idea what the fuck is in there."

"I suppose it depends on what Alice Cullen actually desires," Demetri replied evenly. "She deceived us, she somehow evaded at least Aro's gifts, and potentially the younger Cullen's as well. She even fooled her mate."

Felix winced in sympathy. "Yeah, that's fucking low."

"Indeed," Demetri agreed. "What does the Pixie want so desperately that she would fabricate an entire scenario to ensure the vast majority of the Volturi left the castle? Or, is the scenario not entirely untrue but only tweaked to suit her needs?"

"I thought about that too," the larger vampire said grimly. "I just can't imagine her reasoning, not if she didn't bother to let the rest of her coven in on her plan."

Demetri closed his eyes briefly and grit his teeth. "I think that it is obvious she has had a vision that she is using to guide her choices. One that the rest of us are not privy to. It is impossible to fully predict or understand her actions without knowing what this vision is." He growled low in his chest. "We lack pertinent information."

Felix frowned but set his jaw. "Okay, so, we can't get to the motive right now. I'll have to accept that. But we still have to prepare for what waits in Volterra-"

"Three options," Demetri interrupted with a snap. "We will arrive in Volterra and one of three things will be true. First, Alice and any or all other members we left behind could be missing. We could return to no one or only some of our coven mates who remained. However, I can tell you just by focusing on the tenors of the few minds I am intimately familiar enough with to identify at this distance that our coven mates remain in Volterra as of this moment."

"Second," Felix continued, thinking out loud. "All the players are the same but she's done something that she needed the castle empty for. Maybe tried to sway Bella back to the Cullen's or broke into some locked area or something? I don't know. That seems unlikely, especially since Afton or Santiago would beat her ass."

"Or," Demetri finished through a clenched jaw, "We arrive to find more vampires than we left behind. Vampires who hate the Volturi and yearn to see us fail, see us fall. Which would mean that our coven mates, our mates, are entrenched with an enemy, most likely the Romanians, and at their mercy."

It was early afternoon by the time the lower and upper guard had managed to amass themselves in the sewers below Volturi Castle. The flight itself had taken 4 tense hours and then the process of getting through streaming sunlight into the sewers themselves using pairs of two, cloaks, gloves and vampire speed had been arduous, to say the least. Now, however, the guard stood waiting for orders from Felix.

The smells and sounds of dozens of unknown vampires had Caius nearly foaming at the mouth whilst Aro stood stone still, eyes shaking slightly in their sockets as he appeared to run scenario after scenario through his not insignificant mind. Alec and Jane perched at Aro's side, awaiting orders from their only true master. Felix, however, caught Demetri's eye and gave a slight nod. In the end, Felix would have his back before he had the Kings' and Felix was who would control any assault. This fact made Demetri's tensed shoulders relax infinitesimally.

Above him he could make out the tenor of 94 minds, some familiar and some not. He was counting on his Belloula being near the other Volturi members, as he still was unable to track her. However, if his theory proved to be correct, that would also put her near Stefan and Vladimir, a thought that made a growl of primal rage threaten to escape through his chest. He hung on to his unbreakable control, brutally pushing aside the urge to tear the castle to pieces until he found his mate. Giving in to that inclination would likely only bring harm to her and he would never allow himself the comforts of compulsion at the expense of his mate.

Demetri kept a careful eye on Jasper Hale, who was pacing with black eyes. It was not difficult to see where this situation was heading for him personally and it wasn't going to be palatable. At some point, Jasper was going to reach his mate and his choices were going to become very limited, very fast. Alice had betrayed the Volturi and there was only one sentence for that. Without a doubt, Alice Cullen was going to be condemned to die. Jasper could never allow it and he could potentially take out half the Volturi forces without effort; that was before he even began to truly fight in earnest. If his gift was eliminated, Demetri was fairly confident he and Felix could eliminate him from a combat perspective. The man was unbelievably skilled, but Felix was just as good. When one added Demetri to the mix, the outcome of a fight became more certain. Jane and Alec could potentially take him out of commission before he could begin to use that skill, but it was debatable whether Jane's gift could move faster than Jasper's own (either could incapacitate the other if they moved first,) and Alec's gift was slow-moving.

Felix was talking to a few key members of the lower guard and they were moments from moving forward when Demetri approached Marcus.

"I know," Marcus intoned solemnly before Demetri could speak as he watched Jasper with sorrow in his eyes. "The Seer has betrayed him most of all, but mates are unbreakable. There is nothing he can do."

Demetri tilted his head in acknowledgment stiffly. "He's a threat," he reminded the older vampire. "One that could potentially shift the tides out of our favor."

"Let us worry about that after we see what the Romanians are seeking," Marcus said with a sigh. "We cannot finish the fight regardless until the safety of Sulpicia and Athenodora is assured; Aro and Caius will not allow it. Knowing that, the Queens will be with the Romanians and there will be negotiations before we are forced to concern ourselves with him."

Demetri closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall beside Marcus.

"My Belloula..." He murmured, the stoicism he exhibited unrelentingly slipping for just a moment as the agony of not knowing, not being beside her to protect her leaked into his voice.

Marcus clapped a hand on his shoulder and Demetri turned to look at him. "Her shield, Demetri. It will not fail her."

Demetri grit his teeth and stared at the space in front of him. "Her shield is unpredictable at best. It is not enough."

"Would anything be enough?" Marcus asked knowingly.

Felix called for everyone to move forward, and Demetri did not answer.

The group of vampires surged forward and out of the sewers into the main hall where the fighting began. While most of the lower guard engaged in battle, a core group moved steadily towards the throne room with as little fighting as possible.

Alec steadily incapacitated all in his path until they passed and then released the Romanian soldiers back to the fight so he could focus on the next set before them. Demetri, Felix, the Kings, Jane, Alec, and ten additional guard members swiftly moved around Alec's gift, avoiding the sense deadening fog to push forward, as he deprived the opposition of their senses. The Volturi guard was better trained than the Romanians and holding its own even in the face of superior numbers, but Demetri was not thinking about that. In the throne room stood his coven mates and most importantly, his bambina, and as he got closer, his instincts came to forefront. They overwhelmed some of the carefully constructed walls keeping him outwardly calm and growls rumbled from his throat without his permission.

His teeth ground together and his lips pulled back to bare them as he yearned to rip flesh and burn venom until his little mate was delivered safely to his arms. They were within 100 feet of the doors now and Demetri could feel so many threads of his self-control evaporating to nothingness. The compulsion to roar and bite and destroy was so great now, he could taste it like the sweetness of blood on his tongue, heady and all-consuming in its power.

Jane reached the doors first and swiftly pushed them open. The scene stretched out before them caused the room to fill with snarls even as everyone halted.

Around 20 soldiers stood in front of the dais where the thrones typically sat in a semi-circle facing the doors, teeth bared and ready to attack. Santiago, or pieces of him, lay piled by the doors they had just entered, and Anton and Chelsea stood hand in hand by the wall to the left. Heidi was crumpled near them reattaching an arm.

On the dais itself, the rest of the Volturi and the Romanians were occupied in various tasks. Corin pled on her knees at the Romanian brother's feet for the safety of her Queens with eyes shining with venom. Vladimir had a hand on either side of Athenodora's head as he kneeled on her back, forcing her to lay prostrate on the floor. The threat of dismemberment was clear as he eyed the group that had just entered the throne room with hatred. The threat of death hung heavy as well, enforced by the fire that raged beyond the brothers in which pieces of their enemies could easily be tossed before anyone could reach them.

Sulpicia looked every bit the impassive queen, even as she was held in Stefan's lap as he sat on one of the thrones. He had her secured with an arm around her waist and if it weren't for the threatening look in his eye, one might have thought he was kissing her neck instead of running his teeth along it in a clear warning.

The Cullen's were conspicuously absent.

Demetri, however, saw none of this. His eyes were fixed instead on a spot just beyond the fire where he could see a flash of raven hair and beautiful cerise eyes were locked on him just as he was fixated on her. What had at first appeared to be one big fire behind them he now realized was a ring of life devouring flames. His Belloula stood in the middle, completely encased in her shield, fear and hope warring in those beautiful crimson irises as she stared at her mate.

Demetri felt panic shoot through his veins. They had never tried anything like fire in training, it was simply too dangerous and he had deemed it not worth the risk. Would her shield retain it's here-to-fore impenetrable attribute if it had to deal with flame? And how the fuck, with a sentient shield supposedly tasked with her protection, were they able to corral her into a circle of fire regardless?

An audible growl wrenched its way out of his throat at the immediate danger his mate was in and Stefan's head snapped towards him. The vampire smiled.

"Hello Tracker," Stefan said with a mean glint in his eye. "You have a very intriguing, but very naughty mate."


	13. Hostilities

"Hello Tracker," Stefan said with a mean glint in his eye. "You have a very intriguing, but very naughty mate."

Bella scoffed quietly from her fiery prison. She wasn't being 'naughty' when she attempted to remove Alice's head in a fit of newborn rage; she was being absolutely PISSED and she was still aggravated that the fucking Romanians seemed to think Alice had some intrinsic value.

After Stefan had finished his inquisition of who and what Bella was, the woman just kept going on and on about how Bella was not part of the deal and she was Cullen, not Volturi and so on and so forth, arguing with the brothers until finally, Bella just snapped.

"I am Bella Volturi, mate of Demetri Volturi and member of the Volturi Coven," she had bit out between clenched teeth. "I have never been, nor will I ever be, a Cullen."

Alice's eyes had flashed with annoyance at her reticence as she attempted to correct Bella once again. "You CAN NOT be Volturi," she said firmly. "You have to be a Cullen. I have seen it."

But Bella knew Alice no longer had visions of her, not since Bella had changed, and when she pointed that out, Alice had simply grown more agitated.

"I am quite aware of how you affect my visions," the littlest Cullen had said with anxious, darting eyes. "It's _unbearable_ to not be able to see you. But that does not mean that my visions do not have any effect on you. I have seen Edward, unable to let go of the love he has for you. He is not capable of understanding mating and he LOVES you. He is going to push and push and push at Demetri until finally, Demetri snaps and Edward dies."

Her eyes had become clouded and far away as she explored the possibilities again in her mind. "There was no solution," she said, pulling at her short locks in frustration. "I couldn't drag him away without him finding his way back; I couldn't change his fate no matter what I tried or who I placed in a position to influence him."

Alice had stared at Bella with manic desperation after that and Bella had at once remembered that before Alice was turned, she had been declared insane by other humans. The look in the Seer's eyes caused Bella to wonder if maybe it was not just her abilities that made them think her mad.

"What you don't understand, Bella, is that one death in a coven such as ours so often brings another," she said shrilly, eyes unfocused and filled with venom as she watched her personal horrors play out in her mind. "Carlisle would lose his mind to his grief at the loss of his first son, and the Volturi guard would lay him down without blinking an eye. Esme would light a fire at Denali and in unbearable mourning, step into the flames. My Jasper would drag me forcibly from Italy and we would be spared, but only after the death of three of our family, after the death of my MOTHER and my FATHER. My BROTHER who has done nothing more than love you."

Bella opened her mouth to retort but Alice continued, dry sobs shaking her body as she willed Bella to understand.

"I would do anything to protect my family, Bella," Alice said firmly, reaching a hand out to Bella in supplication. " _Anything_. So long as the Volturi remain in power, Edward stays here and eventually, my family dies. Nothing could change it, _nothing,_ with the Kings in power! I don't CARE who is in charge; I don't care if they burn the world to the ground! The only thing I care about are the people I love, and when I looked, the Romanians already had an army. I had to bring them, don't you understand?! It's my job to fix it, to save them, and _I had to!_ "

Her eyes softened and she smiled, hiccuping around her sobs. "And Bella, I do love you as well. We were best friends once. I know that mating is almost impossible to break, but once Demetri is gone, given time, I truly believe you can grow to love Edward again. Marcus survived the loss of his mate, and who knows what could be with a suitable replacement? I saw it once, and I know it can be again. I'll help you, make you all better, and then we can-"

Alice never quite finished that statement.

And that was how Bella ended up in a ring of fire, surrounded entirely by a shield that may or may not have been flame retardant. Because at the mention of Demetri's death, Bella's brain had stopped processing how non-sensical Alice's ideas were and had instead settled into newborn rage.

Although Stefan had laughed at the way Bella had managed to remove an ear and two fingers before a scream of pain from Heidi got her attention, Vladimir had been markedly less amused. Both the Queens, Heidi, and Corin had been placed under threat in order to convince Bella to step within the only prison they could figure out for her that would keep her with them in the throne room for when the Volturi arrived. Vladimir had ranted that she while she would be a formidable tool, for now she was dangerous and therefore had to be contained. Bella grinned a little even now to think how she made him nervous, even if his unease had resulted in all this fire. When she hadn't moved fast enough (because really, what vampire would move quickly towards flames of death?) Heidi had lost an arm and finally Bella simply stepped into the circle of wood and accelerant in defeat.

Now her eyes were locked with her Metri's through the flames and she was drowning in warring emotions of joy at the sight of her mate and terror at the scene around them.

"Release the members of the Volturi Coven you are holding hostage at once!" Aro snarled, his normally somewhat farcical nature buried in a commanding, violent aura.

Vladimir tipped his head to the side and studied Aro with disdain. "Why would I do that?"

Stefan laughed coldly and tightened his arm around Sulpicia. "Is it not devastating, Aro, to watch your coven and your very mate in peril? What would you do, I wonder, what would you give to keep them safe?"

A growl rumbled from Cauis' throat and he stepped slightly toward the dais. "We are winning, you bastards! Do you hear the sounds of your army being vanquished?" he taunted. "Your soldiers are ill-trained and you will not even be allowed to crawl back to that hole you reside in when we are finished with you!"

"Perhaps. But victory, Cauis Volturi, will never replace a mate." As if to emphasize his point, Vladimir twisted Athendora's neck slightly and she let out a low whine of pain.

Bella watched as Aro's eyes flashed to black and he tilted his head to Jane. Jane locked eyes with Vladimir and her face scrunched up in concentration, but nothing happened.

Stefan's laughter rang across the throne room and he gestured to one of the soldiers towards the right of the line. "Have we not introduced you to Hoku? He's originally from Hawaii, but we tracked him down a decade or so ago. Interesting ability he has; Hoku can negate other gifts."

Stefan glanced at Demetri and smiled. "Even better, he can pick and choose. Your tracker can see us all, can't you? But your witch twins will be finding themselves frustratingly impotent." His eyes fixed on Aro and the smile changed to a smirk. "I imagine you can sympathize with the aggravation of not being able to get it up."

Aro snarled and opened his mouth but Demetri cut him off with a cold chuckle.

"I assume Hoku's little gift is useless on my Belloula?" Demetri never took his eyes off Bella as he spoke calmly to the Romanians. "Is that why you have her locked away? It seems sad that you are so terrified of a newborn, even one as exceptional as my mate."

Vladimir fixed him with a gaze full of barely banked rage. "Your mate is wild and unstable. You may count yourself lucky Hoku's gift does not work on her, or I would have burned her myself."

Bella watched as Demetri's eye twitched, but he gave no other indication of just how those words must have stung him. Bella knew from experience the thought of harm coming to one's mate was nigh unbearable.

Stefan glanced back at her through the flames and his lips twitched up into a cruel grin. "You know, I lost my mate long ago. When the Queens lose their mates after we burn the Volturi Kings to ash, we'll likely just let them join their loves on the pyre. Useless little nothings, you know? But your Bella, well, she has power, and such spunk, too. What do you think, Tracker? Do you think I could teach her to live without you?"

Stefan leaned forward conspiratorially in his chair, forcing Sulpicia to lean with him, as he winked. "Think I could teach her to 'love' without you?"

Demetri tensed and a growl rumbled through his throat, but one glance at Bella encased in fire stilled him. She watched as he breathed deeply and clasped onto the epic self-possession she had always watched him exhibit. Her heart ached at how deeply she wanted to be in the safety of his arms right now.

Stefan let out an annoyed sigh, obviously disappointed that Demetri had retained his control, before turning a curious eye to Aro. "Well, maybe the Queens won't be entirely useless," he mused, turning to the vampire in his lap. "What about it, sweetheart? You are a very pretty thing."

He locked eyes with the dark-haired King and ran his tongue along the woman's mating mark before sinking his teeth in. Sulpicia cried out in pain and tried involuntarily to buck out of his arms as Aro roared with fury.

There was no stopping the impulsive attack on Stefan and with little fanfare, a battle broke out in the throne room in earnest.

Bella hopped from foot to foot, trapped on her fiery prison as her friends and loved ones fought the Romanians. At Aro's charge, Sulpicia and Athendora had been thrust into the arms of the closest soldiers in what appeared to be a previously planned maneuver and moved to stand to the opposite sides of the fire. Hoku retreated behind the fire and watched from a distance, flanked by an additional soldier.

Corin, on seeing the fighting begin, took her chance to charge and fight for the release of her ladies. Hoku's guard caught her around the waist and ripped her to pieces, ignoring Bella's cries and venom-filled eyes, before dropping her into the fire. Athendora sobbed aloud and Bella swallowed heavily. While she had not known Corin well at all, but the woman had been a coven mate and in the Volturi, that meant something.

She felt so helpless, in her circle of fire as teeth bit and flesh was scratched and pulled from bone. There was a war raging around her and she was useless.

'Please,' Bella pled with her shield. 'It's time for you to listen to me. I don't know why you won't work with me, but we're out of time. Please help me.'

She watched as Afton and Chelsea stood back to back, snarling and attacking anyone who darted into their space to the left of the thrones. Afton was carefully steering any hostiles towards himself and leaving Chelsea to deal with weaker opponents, a determination he made in less than a second when a new fighter approached them. But Afton was too focused on Chelsea to be effective and Chelsea was not a good fighter. It would not be long before the couple found themselves overcome, and Bella felt her stomach drop at the thought of what would happen then.

'We have to help them!' Bella yelled in the quiet of her mind. 'I can't do anything from in here, but you can. I need you!'

Jane and Alec were terrified, severely out trained without their gifts. Felix stood in front of the pair of them, fighting off attackers with skill and precision. Three attacked him at once, then four, and despite Felix's unbelievable skill Bella could not help but dread the moment when one too many jumped on him and he would be overpowered.

She grit her teeth and tried, once more, to call her shield forth but she simply couldn't feel it. She knew it had to be there in her mind, somewhere within her, but she had no sense of it. Once again, Bella was faced with the reality that her shield was not interested in letting her truly work with it, but this time, that fact would come at a much steeper price than it did in training.

The guards rallied behind their kings as the soldiers did the same around the Romanian brothers and a group mixed with assorted fighters, Volturi royalty, and the Romanians clashed in the center of the room. With a screech, Heidi launched herself into the middle and towards Vladimir. Bella cringed, but knew that the removal of her arm and the pain she had suffered could be lain firmly at Vladimir's feet and the Bait, it seemed, wanted revenge. Bodies rolled together and the occasional limb flew through the air as the vampires pressed together in a strange perversion of a mosh pit, as if by sheer will and strength alone the could squeeze the life from one another.

As Bella observed the battle with frantic trepidation, she was always aware of Demetri's smooth and calculating combat skills. Much like Felix, Demetri had yet to falter as he fought through soldier after soldier. He pushed to move forward, his eyes often locked on where Bella stood encased in flames even as he bit and tore his way to her.

In a matter of seconds, however, the tide changed as two vampires came at Demetri from behind and grabbed for his shoulders. He threw one off but as he reached for the second, a third vampire jumped towards his waist and brought a leg to the back of Demetri's knee. He fell to a kneeling position as the vampire he threw recovered and latched on to his shoulder again. The one who had taken out his knee climbed up Demetri's back until the soldier's teeth were less than a second from sinking into his neck.

Bella felt her world narrow to a tiny pinprick. Her brain stuttered and she felt a splitting pain wrench through her head. Her heart, which like all vampires had not beat since she left her human life behind, gave an audible thump and she felt time stop as her world flared white. She collapsed to the ground and panted as a pain very much like the change splintered through her veins.

Bella felt as if her venom was boiling and her mind was shattering and then, just as quick as it came, it was gone. Upon opening her eyes, she gasped to find that the sense that time had stalled was not a sensation at all but the reality.

Everything around her, from the flames that made up her prison to the vampire intent of wrenching her mate's head from his body, was embedded in the crystalline, unyielding material of her shield. The battle around her was paused, every participant stuck in an exact moment as if the entire room had iced over at once.

Bella pulled herself to her feet and felt her gaze snap to Demetri where even imprisoned as he was in her shield, his eyes burned into her. With a whisper of a thought, her shield moved so that the fire still burning within the walls of her shield shifted and allowed her to move from the circle that had held her captive. She could feel her power fluttering over her skin in a way she never had before and as she walked quickly towards her mate, she willed him to be freed from his confines and watched as her shield retreated at her whim.

Demetri moved with purpose towards her and scooped her up, holding her against his chest as the world languished around them. Bella's toes brushed the ground as she clutched at his shoulders and buried her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the scent of him that was home and safety and everything she would ever need.

"Metri," she whispered into his skin and she felt his arms tighten around her in response.

Much too soon, Demetri was setting her on her feet and pulling back slightly to look her over. He ran his hands up and down her arms as if assuring himself she was whole before he brushed a tendril of hair out of her face and he cupped her cheek gently.

Demetri's lip quirked up slightly as she stared up at him, oblivious to anything but his full lips and dark crimson eyes. "Perhaps, kouklitsa, we should release the rest of our coven mates from this rather impressive confinement you have created."

Bella startled and glanced around, remembering they were essentially in the middle of a frozen battleground.

"Right," she said with a shrug and a giggle that made his grin deepen. "Whoops."


	14. Momentary Respite

Demetri watched impatiently as his mate released the Volturi one by one from the confines of her shield. His fingernails dug into his palms when his hands clenched by his side while she steadily worked through the room, concentrating so as not to release any Romanians as well.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware that he should be interested and fascinated by the newfound control his kouklitsa was exhibiting. Indeed, he suspected that later he would be consumed by thoughts and experiments to determine just what she was capable of.

Right now, however, his instincts raced up and down his spine like ice and he _needed_ to reassert his claim. His venom sang through him with the drive to assure himself of his mate's safety.

Distantly he noted that the two Volturi Kings must have felt the same, especially Aro after having his mating mark violated. The thought of Demetri's own mating mark being bitten by another caused his teeth to bare involuntarily and the compulsion to drag Bella from the room increased.

With the last Volturi guard released, Demetri could endure distance from her no longer and he crossed the room to where his Belloula stood as she surveyed the room to ensure she missed no one. Snaking an arm around her waist, he pressed her body into his and reveled in the soft give of her hips beneath his fingers as her back nestled against his chest.

Her scent, always so intoxicating, filled his senses until he felt half-mad with adoration and lust and possessiveness. Pulling his little mate with him, he moved towards the wall where the kings stood with their respective mates as they oversaw and commanded the vampires in the room.

Demetri nodded an acknowledgment to the rulers while he kept Bella planted firmly in the cage of his arms.

"Masters," he greeted coolly. "How soon will my mate be able to release the Romanians from their confines?"

Aro sighed and pulled Sulpicia more firmly into his side. "I understand your impatience, my friend, but there has been some disagreement on what, exactly, we should do with the Romanian soldiers as well as when Stefan and Vladimir will be executed."

Demetri shrugged. The fate of the vampires still encased in his kouklitsa's shield all around him were of little concern to him, assuming they were eliminated as threats to his mate. When and how that was accomplished was unimportant.

Marcus looked towards Bella and hummed thoughtfully. "Is keeping your shield up a drain on your energy, Bambina? You look as if you do not feel well."

Demetri felt his Belloula squirm slightly in his arms and raised a single eyebrow as he waited for her answer.

"It's not that," Bella finally answered quietly. "It's just- I haven't fed in much longer than I'm used to and the-"

Demetri cut her off with a squeeze around her waist as he stared coolly at Aro. "Make your decisions now, Master," he said evenly. "My mate is in need of blood and that is unacceptable."

Aro opened his mouth to retort but seemed to think better of it. He sighed and looked back at Bella with a small, fond smile. "I am sorry, Bellezza, for your discomfort," he said diplomatically. "Tell me; do you think it would be possible to release the shield around their feet only so that we could move all of our unwelcome guests into the same area?"

Bella nodded. "I think so."

Cauis frowned. "Brother, we have not-"

"I understand we are not done talking, Caius," Aro interrupted him. "Gods forbid we finish this in any reasonable time period so we can see to our mates."

Caius growled in annoyance but Aro ignored him. "However, if the entirety of our intruders are in one area, Alec can use his gift to contain them which will allow our resident bambina to go and enjoy a much-earned meal."

"What about Hoku?" Bella asked as she snuggled further into Demetri's arms.

"It appears your shield encases his abilities as well and once he is under Alec's thrall, he will not be able to sense other vampires to remove their gifts," Marcus explained with the smallest upturn of his lips. "As long as he is already encased in the fog when you remove his shielding, there shouldn't be a problem."

"Then shall we proceed?" Demetri cut in impatiently.

Twenty minutes later saw Bella finally dropping the last of her shielding and Demetri hanging onto his self-possession by a thread. When the last bit of translucence folded in on itself and vanished, he picked her up and settled her against him with his hands cupping her thighs, ignoring her squeak of surprise.

Bella wrapped her legs around his hips as her fingers dug into his shoulders while he strode from the throne room. The halls were littered with the remnants of a defeated army and the Volturi poked at the limbs of the fallen Romanians, awaiting orders on what, precisely, they were to do with the enemy vampires. Demetri paid no mind to any of it as he moved towards the kitchen where bagged blood was housed in case of emergencies and tried with very little success to ignore the mating instincts thrumming hot and heavy through his veins. Despite the difficulty, he would not allow himself to give in to the need to thrust and bite; not until his mate was fed.

Upon entering the kitchen, Demetri moved to settle his kouklitsa on a countertop so he could heat the blood for her but found himself quite entangled with his little mate who seemed unwilling to release him.

He chuckled into her hair as he grasped her fingers and attempted to unclench them from his shirt. "Belloula," he scolded her fondly, "how am I to heat your meal if you will not relinquish your hold on me?"

"Don't go away, Metri," she murmured into the crook of his shoulder as her legs tightened around his hips. Demetri swallowed down the growl that threatened to escape at the friction she had inadvertently created between their bodies and gently but firmly pulled her hands away.

"I am not leaving you, Kouklitsa," Demetri explained as he settled her bottom on the counter and reached behind him to disentangle her locked ankles. "I simply need you to sit here while I prepare the blood. I'll not even leave the room."

"No," Bella answered stubbornly even as she allowed him to pull himself back slightly from the cradle of her legs.

"It'll be fine," he told her with a lingering kiss to her forehead. "I promise."

Bella's eyes were shiny with venom as she pulled back and looked in his eyes. The fear there made his heart clench.

"That's what you said before," she whispered, and Demetri suddenly realized that this behavior had nothing to do with letting him warm her meal and everything to do with the terror of the time since he had last seen her.

His eyes closed in agony at his failure to protect her and he pressed his forehead to hers. "I am so very sorry, my Belloula," he told her as he brought his lips to hers.

The kiss was agonizingly slow and tender, filled with his regret that she had been unprotected and his sorrow at his failings as a mate. It did not matter that he could not have anticipated this nor prevented it. All that mattered was that his inadvertent negligence had left the only being in the world who truly mattered to him exposed to danger.

His little mate opened her sweet, sweet lips to him and he took full advantage of the privilege as he licked at her tongue. His hands came up to cradle her face as he explored the depths of his kouklitsa's delicious mouth. She moaned and moved to clutch him to her, but he moved away with great reluctance.

Demetri's voice was hoarse in his own ears as he told her, "Feeding first. You must eat, bambina."

Bella brought her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs as she watched him prepare 12 blood bags on the stove. Each bag was approximately a pint and he wanted her to drink the equivalent of at least two small people before he let her stop.

When they were human body temperature, he removed them from the heat and moved to where she sat on the counter. In one swift move, he picked her up and dropped them both to the floor, settling her back to his chest as he nestled her body between his legs. He rested back against the cabinet as he handed her the first bag and watched as she ripped the plastic clip from the bottom and drank greedily.

With each bag Bella consumed, Demetri felt the satisfaction of feeding and caring for his mate increase. It was not enough to assuage his guilt about what had happened to her while he tracked an army that was not where it was supposed to be, but it soothed the burn of that pain slightly and he was thankful for that.

When the last bag was no more, Demetri helped a sated Bella to her feet and scooped her up once again.

"I can walk, you know," she giggled into the skin of his neck, even as she pressed herself closer to him.

He inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent like a cleansing breath, and resumed walking towards their quarters.

"I know, my kouklitsa," he told her quietly. "But the sight of you in that fire, the thought of what could happen were your shield to fail you..."

Demetri trailed off even as his hands tightened on the backs of her thighs. "I need this," he murmured, almost ashamed to admit it.

Bella, to her credit, said nothing but let the moment pass as she nestled further into his embrace and allowed him to carry her away towards their rooms.

Felix caught up to them halfway there and while Demetri did not break his stride, he listened as Felix informed him that the Kings had moved Vladimir and Stefan to the dungeons so that they could gather witnesses for an official trial. The Romanian army, it had been decided, would receive a choice of joining the Volturi guard for a period of no less than 50 years or death.

Until they could be questioned, they would be imprisoned. In pieces.

Demetri ran a hand through Bella's hair to soothe her as she shivered at the brutality of such a choice, but he himself was unsurprised. The Volturi were not known to be squeamish.

"And what of the Cullen's?" Demetri spat, turning to his friend as they arrived just outside the sitting room of his home within the palace.

Felix grimaced and glanced at the back of Bella's head before he looked back to Demetri.

"Alice and Jasper disappeared during the battle-" he paused, flinching back slightly at the growl that wrenched itself from Demetri's throat before he continued, "-but Edward and the Doc are still here. They're being held in their rooms till Aro has a chance to examine them."

"The Cullen's may choose to scatter like rats-" Demetri started, hatred brimming his usually impassive voice.

"But they can't hide," Felix interrupted. "Not from you. I know, D."

Felix hesitated before clearing his throat and glancing back at Demetri's mate in his arms. "Hey Bambina? I'm sorry you got caught up in this," he told her with a sigh. "I'm glad you're okay."

Bella lifted her head for a moment and offered Felix a small smile. "You too, Lex."

Felix lifted an eyebrow and grinned at her. "Lex, huh? I get a nickname now? Awesome. Much better than 'Metri'," he said with a wink.

Demetri simply looked at him and Felix grinned back unrepentantly.

"Anyway, you two have fun catching up. When you finally pull yourself back out of the sheets, I want to talk about you shield," Felix told her, backing up with a crooked smile. "That was fucking wicked."

Demetri turned away and carried his Belloula over the threshold, not pausing as he made his way through the solar and into the bedchamber. He collapsed over her on the bed, nestled into the cradle of her thighs with her arms around his neck, and he felt a shudder run through him.

She could have died. Over a thousand years alone, never yearning for companionship or true connection, but now he had his kouklitsa, his bambina, his MATE and he could have lost her in the time it took the venom in her body to light on fire.

His nose ran along his mating mark and he reveled in the feeling of her squirming beneath him, so very soft and beautiful and ALIVE. She was here with him, where she belonged, and it was important in so many ways that he did not understand at all that she never be anywhere else.

"This feeling," Demetri muttered, licking at her skin and biting back a groan as she tangled her hand in his hair. "I do not understand, I-"

He lost his voice to a moan as she cupped him through his trousers, rubbing at the length of him through the fabric with her deft little fingers.

"Metri," Bella said sweetly, pulling back to look into his eyes with a strange glint of understanding. "Metri, I love you."

His mouth fell open as pleasure and realization pulsed through his chest, his stomach, and lower still. For all of his composure, his poise, his intelligence, he had failed utterly to articulate what his Belloula put so simply.

Demetri felt broken and whole, somehow both wrecked and completed in the wake of her love. Vulnerability was not something he was accustomed to, and it was an uncomfortable and yet soothing dichotomy that wracked through his body at the realization of just how vulnerable he actually was now. He closed his eyes as he rucked her skirt up to her waist and ripped the last silky barrier from her body, settling her thighs on his shoulders as his lips caressed the places he knew would give her the most pleasure.

"I love you too," He breathed into the very core of her, muffling the painfully raw words against her flesh with licks of his tongue. "Fuck, but I love you too."

When Bella was once again a quivering mess beneath him, he rose and settled himself behind her, allowing them both to rest on their sides. He held her tightly, his hand cupping and rubbing at her breasts while he pushed into her, muffling the growls of pleasure she wrenched from him into her raven hair.

As his entire body tightened in preparation for his peak, Demetri's hand smoothed over her hip and further to wrench one more orgasm from his kouklitsa. He licked at his mark and murmured a final, broken "Love you" before he bit into the scar on her neck, pulsing inside of her as she fell into ecstasy with him and screamed her release into the night.


End file.
